Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM) reported third-quarter 2013 results before markets opened Thursday morning. The tobacco products firm posted adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.44 on revenue of $7.93 billion. In the same period a year ago, the company reported EPS of $1.38 on $7.92 billion in revenues. Thomson Reuters had consensus estimates for EPS of $1.43 and revenue of $7.94 billion.

Currency translation effects cost the company $120 million in revenues. Excluding that effect, Philip Morris’s revenues would have been up 1.6% year-over-year.

Cigarette shipment volume fell 5.7% year-over-year globally and by 4.1% in the Philippines, where a January 2013 excise tax increase cut shipments by more than 6 billion units. European volume fell 5.2% and Asian shipments fell 7.8%. The company’s Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region also posted a drop of 5.5% in cigarette shipments. The company was able to make up some of the decrease by raising prices.

The company lowered its full-year EPS guidance from a range of $5.43 to $5.53 to a new range of $5.35 to $5.40, compared with full-year 2012 EPS of $5.17. The forecast includes a $0.33 per share reduction due to currency exchange rates. Excluding the currency impact, a $0.01 per share tax, and a $0.03 per share restructuring charge, the company expects adjusted EPS to rise by about 10% compared with 2012’s adjusted EPS of $5.22. The consensus estimate had called for full-year EPS of $5.43 (down from $5.73 at the beginning of the year) on revenues of $31.38 billion (down from an original total of $32.37 billion).

The company’s CEO noted:

While the evolution of the macro-economic environment and tax-paid cigarette industry volume remain a challenge, our business fundamentals are solid and we continue to anticipate a strong final quarter.

What makes tobacco companies so attractive to investors is their dividend, and Philip Morris boosted its quarterly dividend from $0.85 a share to $0.94 in the third quarter. The dividend yield on the stock is 4.3%.

The company repurchased 16.7 million shares of its own stock in the third quarter at a cost of $1.46 billion. Philip Morris plans to spend $18 billion on share repurchases in a three-year program that began in the third quarter of last year. So far the company has spent $7.35 billion on share buybacks.

The company’s shares traded down fractionally in the premarket Thursday morning, at $86.03. The stock’s 52-week range is $82.10 to $96.73. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $95.70 before this report.

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