Philip Morris (PM) Laps the Stock Market: Here's Why
Philip Morris (PM) ended the recent trading session at $91.56, demonstrating a +0.41% swing from the preceding day's closing price. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.04%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.16%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.28%.
Heading into today, shares of the seller of Marlboro and other cigarette brands had lost 0.02% over the past month, lagging the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 3.75% and the S&P 500's gain of 5.01% in that time.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Philip Morris in its upcoming release. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $1.40, signifying a 1.45% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $8.38 billion, up 3.5% from the prior-year quarter.
In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $6.40 per share and a revenue of $36.9 billion, indicating changes of +6.49% and +4.66%, respectively, from the former year.
Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Philip Morris. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 2.66% lower within the past month. Philip Morris is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In the context of valuation, Philip Morris is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 14.25. This denotes a premium relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 8.07.
One should further note that PM currently holds a PEG ratio of 2.05. The PEG ratio bears resemblance to the frequently used P/E ratio, but this parameter also includes the company's expected earnings growth trajectory. As the market closed yesterday, the Tobacco industry was having an average PEG ratio of 1.66.
The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 104, putting it in the top 42% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) : Free Stock Analysis Report
