Philip Morris lowers FY earnings guidance

Tobacco giant Philip Morris lowered its full-year earnings outlook on Thursday amid rising tobacco leaf prices, energy, and labour costs.

Philip Morris now expects adjusted full-year profits to come in between $6.10 and $6.22 per share, down from its prior guidance of $6.25 and $6.37 per share.

For the first quarter, Philip Morris said revenue had risen 3.5% to $8.02bn. However, this also missed analysts' estimates of $8.11bn as the group's bottom line was impacted by lower cigarette shipment volumes.

Gross profits contracted from $21.37bn in 2021 to $20.36bn a year later, while adjusted operating income margins shrunk 5.8% in the three months ended 31 March as a result of higher logistics and energy costs that were further aggravated by the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

As of 1600 BST, Philip Morris shares were down 4.82% at $96.62 each.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com