UPDATE: Stifel Nicolaus Increases Target to $88 on Philip Morris

Stifel Nicolaus remains Buy-rated on Philip Morris

and raises its price target by $8 to $88 on continued robust growth for 2012. Stifel Nicolaus says, "The company introduced its 2012 EPS guidance calling for EPS in the range of $5.25 - $5.35 which includes a 10-cent drag from negative FX trends at today's rate. We are increasing our estimate to $5.32 due mostly to improved FX rates versus our modeling as well as a stronger volume growth expectation in 2012. We estimate EPS of $5.83 in 2013. We view the current revenue estimate as achievable given continued contributions from pricing (+5% by our estimate) and a reasonable volume growth expectation here in 2012 (flat, with 1% underlying growth)." PM closed at $80.06 yesterday.