Philip Morris Kicks Off Tobacco's Q2 Earnings Season with Strong Beat

Shares of

jumped more than 2 percent in pre-market trading after the company reported upbeat results for its second quarter. The New York-based company reported a quarterly profit of $1.89 billion, or $1.21 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $1.85 billion, or $1.17 per share. Its revenue, excluding excise taxes, shrank to $6.86 billion versus $7.8 billion. Excluding currency impacts, revenue rose 4.5 percent. Analysts were estimating a profit of $1.13 per share on revenue of $6.73 billion. The average estimate among 15 Estimize users was for earnings of $1.15 per share and revenue of $6.8 billion. Its cigarette volume declined 1.3 percent to 219.8 billion units. European volume slipped 3.5 percent, while Latin America and Canada volume dropped 2.1 percent. Marlboro shipments shrank 1.1 percent, while shipments for the Philip Morris brand climbed 13.5 percent. The company did not make any share repurchases during the first six months of 2015. "Our second-quarter results were very solid, further reinforcing our great start to the year," said André Calantzopoulos, Chief Executive Officer. "Our organic volume trends, market share growth and robust pricing, exemplified by our flagship brand Marlboro, are driving excellent operational performance within an improving macroeconomic environment for our business." For the year, Philip Morris projects currency-neutral adjusted EPS to be at the upper end of its forecast of 9 percent to 11 percent growth. Philip Morris shares rose 2.32 percent to $84.59 in pre-market trading.