Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Acquires New Position in Philip Morris International Inc. $PM

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 85,815 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,919,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. WCM Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Philip Morris International by 24,968.0% in the second quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 11,275,606 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,041,223,000 after purchasing an additional 11,230,626 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Philip Morris International by 1.6% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 142,857,055 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,018,555,000 after buying an additional 2,235,380 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its holdings in Philip Morris International by 69.0% during the second quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 4,512,311 shares of the company’s stock worth $821,826,000 after buying an additional 1,842,754 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Philip Morris International by 88.9% during the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 2,138,118 shares of the company’s stock worth $389,415,000 after buying an additional 1,006,014 shares during the period. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Philip Morris International by 142.2% in the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,512,514 shares of the company’s stock valued at $275,474,000 after acquiring an additional 888,148 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.63% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Philip Morris International in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley set a $175.00 target price on shares of Philip Morris International and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Philip Morris International from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $220.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Philip Morris International from $190.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $180.00 price objective on shares of Philip Morris International in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Philip Morris International has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $184.56.

Philip Morris International Stock Up 1.8%

Shares of NYSE:PM opened at $173.06 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $269.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.35, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.40. Philip Morris International Inc. has a 12 month low of $125.53 and a 12 month high of $186.69. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $159.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $161.60.

Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM) last released its earnings results on Friday, October 24th. The company reported $2.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.10 by $0.14. Philip Morris International had a negative return on equity of 122.14% and a net margin of 9.33%.The firm had revenue of $10.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.67 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.91 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Philip Morris International Inc. will post 7.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Philip Morris International Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 26th were given a dividend of $1.47 per share. This represents a $5.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 26th. Philip Morris International’s dividend payout ratio is currently 106.52%.

About Philip Morris International

Philip Morris International Inc (NYSE: PM) is a global tobacco company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, other nicotine-containing products and a growing portfolio of smoke-free alternatives for adult smokers. The firm traces its corporate roots to the 19th century Philip Morris enterprise and was established as an independent, publicly traded company following a 2008 separation from what is now Altria. Since the spin-off, the company has focused on serving international markets outside the United States.

PMI’s product mix includes traditional combustible cigarettes as well as smoke-free offerings such as heated tobacco systems and other reduced-risk products.