Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Makes New $66.24 Million Investment in Philip Morris International Inc. $PM

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 370,332 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $66,238,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PM. WCM Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Philip Morris International by 24,968.0% during 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 acquiring an additional 11,230,626 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Philip Morris International by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 142,857,055 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,018,555,000 after purchasing an additional 2,235,380 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its position in shares of Philip Morris International by 69.0% in the 2nd 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 purchasing an additional 1,842,754 shares in the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. grew its stake in 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 last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Philip Morris International by 142.2% during the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,512,514 shares of the company’s stock valued at $275,474,000 after buying an additional 888,148 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.63% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus set a $180.00 price target on Philip Morris International in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Philip Morris International in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Philip Morris International from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Philip Morris International from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the company from $220.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, 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. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $184.56.

Philip Morris International Trading Down 3.6%

PM opened at $167.38 on Wednesday. Philip Morris International Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.22 and a 12-month high of $186.69. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $158.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $161.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $260.54 billion, a PE ratio of 30.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.40.

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

Philip Morris International Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 26th were given a dividend of $1.47 per share. This represents a $5.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 26th. Philip Morris International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 106.52%.

Philip Morris International Profile

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.