Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM) is hosting its investor day at its operations center in Switzerland, and with this the company announced updates in its guidance. Management believes that the company is very well positioned to deliver results based on its innovative pipeline; commercial, regulatory and fiscal capabilities; manufacturing footprint; and organizational readiness.
The company revised its full-year forecast for currency only, and narrowed its reported earnings per share (EPS) forecast to a range of $4.53 to $4.58, at prevailing exchange rates, versus $4.42 in 2015. Excluding an unfavorable currency impact, at prevailing exchange rates, of roughly $0.35 for the full-year 2016, the diluted EPS range represents a projected increase of about 10.5% to 11.5%, versus EPS of $4.42 in 2015.
Thomson Reuters consensus estimates call for $4.49 in EPS for the 2016 full year.
The company expects its currency-neutral EPS in the third quarter of 2016 to be flat to slightly up from the third quarter of 2015. It continues to anticipate significant currency-neutral adjusted diluted EPS growth in the fourth quarter of 2016.
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The consensus estimates for the third and fourth quarter are $1.23 and $1.14 in EPS, respectively. The same periods from last year had $1.24 and $0.81 in EPS, respectively.
For the full-year 2016, Philip Morris forecasts a total cigarette industry volume decline of 2.0% to 2.5%, excluding China and the United States. For the full-year 2016, the company anticipates its cigarette shipment volume, excluding China and the United States, to decline in line with its August year-to-date decline of 3.9%.
André Calantzopoulos, CEO of Philip Morris, commented:
The core components of our business model hold great promise for our shareholders and our broader stakeholder base. We will continue to lead the combustible product category, leveraging the great strengths of our existing business to deliver against our current growth algorithm.
Shares of Philip Morris were trading at $98.37 on Thursday, with a consensus analyst price target of $105.40 and a 52-week trading range of $78.41 to $104.20.
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