Philip Morris International Inc. $PM Stake Boosted by GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC

GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC grew its stake in Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) by 55.6% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 18,165 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 6,490 shares during the quarter. GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC’s holdings in Philip Morris International were worth $3,466,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in Philip Morris International by 0.4% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 108,039,522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,545,430,000 after acquiring an additional 444,449 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Philip Morris International by 1.0% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 55,569,994 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,134,454,000 after acquiring an additional 536,968 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC purchased a new position in Philip Morris International in the second quarter worth approximately $8,220,008,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Philip Morris International by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,506,171 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,167,041,000 after acquiring an additional 650,587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in Philip Morris International by 12.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 17,230,669 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,848,919,000 after acquiring an additional 1,847,421 shares in the last quarter. 78.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Philip Morris International from $205.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Philip Morris International from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Argus lifted their price objective on shares of Philip Morris International from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 26th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Philip Morris International from $215.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Philip Morris International from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a report on Thursday, October 8th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Philip Morris International presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $212.40.

Philip Morris International Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of Philip Morris International stock opened at $207.48 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $194.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $182.33. Philip Morris International Inc. has a 12-month low of $144.22 and a 12-month high of $214.35. The stock has a market cap of $323.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.29, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.34.

Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The company reported $2.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.30 by $0.06. Philip Morris International had a net margin of 10.73% and a negative return on equity of 183.96%. The firm had revenue of $11.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.32 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.24 earnings per share. Philip Morris International’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Philip Morris International Inc. will post 8.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Philip Morris International Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 2nd were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. This is an increase from Philip Morris International’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.47. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 2nd. Philip Morris International’s payout ratio is presently 93.43%.

Philip Morris International Company Profile

Philip Morris International Inc (NYSE:PM) is a global tobacco and nicotine company headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. It was established as an independent company in 2008 following the separation of Philip Morris International from Altria Group. The company develops, manufactures and markets tobacco, nicotine and other related consumer products primarily outside the United States.

Its portfolio includes internationally recognized cigarette brands such as Marlboro, Parliament, L&M, Chesterfield and Bond Street.