New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Has $8.47 Million Stock Position in Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board lifted its stake in shares of Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) by 11.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 90,111 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,300 shares during the quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in Philip Morris International were worth $8,465,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank of Nova Scotia boosted its stake in Philip Morris International by 283.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 1,186,082 shares of the company’s stock valued at $111,583,000 after buying an additional 876,790 shares in the last quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Philip Morris International by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. now owns 603,442 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,772,000 after buying an additional 13,416 shares in the last quarter. Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Philip Morris International in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,251,000. Nebula Research & Development LLC acquired a new stake in Philip Morris International in the fourth quarter valued at about $857,000. Finally, AJOVista LLC acquired a new stake in Philip Morris International in the fourth quarter valued at about $137,000. 78.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PM has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Argus reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Philip Morris International in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Philip Morris International from $108.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $104.22.

Philip Morris International Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE PM traded down $0.24 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $101.33. 7,299,472 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,042,973. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $100.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $94.94. Philip Morris International Inc. has a 1-year low of $87.23 and a 1-year high of $104.90. The firm has a market cap of $157.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.79, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.57.

Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The company reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.09. Philip Morris International had a negative return on equity of 113.26% and a net margin of 8.58%. The business had revenue of $8.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.38 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Philip Morris International Inc. will post 6.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Philip Morris International Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 21st will be paid a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 21st. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.13%. Philip Morris International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 101.56%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Philip Morris International

In related news, insider Wilde Frederic De sold 20,000 shares of Philip Morris International stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.42, for a total transaction of $1,928,400.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 178,447 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,205,859.74. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Philip Morris International Company Profile

Philip Morris International Inc operates as a tobacco company working to delivers a smoke-free future and evolving portfolio for the long-term to include products outside of the tobacco and nicotine sector. The company's product portfolio primarily consists of cigarettes and smoke-free products, including heat-not-burn, vapor, and oral nicotine products primarily under the IQOS and ZYN brands; and consumer accessories, such as lighters and matches.