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Philip Morris (PM) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Philip Morris (PM - Free Report) closed at $86.33, marking a +0.58% move from the previous day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.22%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.49%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.15%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the seller of Marlboro and other cigarette brands had lost 1.93% over the past month. This has lagged the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 2.57% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.57% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from PM as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be February 14, 2019. In that report, analysts expect PM to post earnings of $1.18 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 9.92%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $7.37 billion, down 11.19% from the year-ago period.

PM's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $5.01 per share and revenue of $29.47 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +1.62% and +2.5%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for PM should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.37% higher. PM is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that PM has a Forward P/E ratio of 17.12 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 13.4.

Also, we should mention that PM has a PEG ratio of 1.97. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. PM's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.88 as of yesterday's close.

The Tobacco industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 164, which puts it in the bottom 36% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

To follow PM in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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