Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM) Reaches New 12-Month High – Time to Buy?

Shares of Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Friday. The company traded as high as $214.35 and last traded at $210.4730, with a volume of 220,866 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $208.50.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Philip Morris International from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. BTIG Research set a $221.00 price objective on Philip Morris International and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Philip Morris International from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. UBS Group raised their target price on Philip Morris International from $193.00 to $201.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Philip Morris International from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.70.

Philip Morris International Price Performance

The company’s 50-day moving average price is $193.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $181.71. The company has a market cap of $326.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.34.

Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 21st. The company reported $2.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $11.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.32 billion. Philip Morris International had a net margin of 10.73% and a negative return on equity of 183.96%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.24 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Philip Morris International Inc. will post 8.32 EPS for the current year.

Philip Morris International Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 2nd were paid a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 2nd. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.1%. This is a positive change from Philip Morris International’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.47. Philip Morris International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 93.43%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in Philip Morris International by 0.4% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 108,039,522 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,545,430,000 after purchasing an additional 444,449 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Philip Morris International by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 55,569,994 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,134,454,000 after buying an additional 536,968 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC bought a new stake in Philip Morris International during the 2nd quarter worth about $8,220,008,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Philip Morris International by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,506,171 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,167,041,000 after buying an additional 650,587 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of Philip Morris International by 12.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 17,230,669 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,848,919,000 after acquiring an additional 1,847,421 shares in the last quarter. 78.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Philip Morris International Company Profile

Philip Morris International Inc (NYSE:PM) is a global tobacco and nicotine company headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. It was established as an independent company in 2008 following the separation of Philip Morris International from Altria Group. The company develops, manufactures and markets tobacco, nicotine and other related consumer products primarily outside the United States.

Its portfolio includes internationally recognized cigarette brands such as Marlboro, Parliament, L&M, Chesterfield and Bond Street.