Blackstone Group LP Misses On Revenue, Philip Morris worldwide Inc. Beats

(EBAY) on Thursday reported second-quarter net income of $83 million. (PM) reported Thursday a profit for the first quarter that increased two percent from a year ago, which was weighed down by asset impairment and exit costs. Excluding inventory movements, shipment volumes dropped by 1.6%.

Both earnings per share and quarterly revenues topped analysts’ expectations. The company said it is optimistic volume for the year could be better than expected but declined to offer specific guidance.

Philip Morris has been struggling with the impacts of a strong dollar and industrywide cigarette volume sluggishness.

Net revenue in the EMEA region slipped 15.9% to $1.9 billion due to unfavorable currency effect.

“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”. Earnings, adjusted to account for discontinued operations and stock option expense, were 76 cents per share. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.12 per share. Results, however, beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $6.7 billion by 2.9%.

Revenue, excluding excise taxes, declined to $6.86 billion from $7.8 billion as Philip Morris continued to deal with unfavourable currency translation. Revenue rose 0.2% to $19.47 billion, above views for $19.17 billion. The firm also reported $31.3 billion in gross inflows, another record. (PM) gained $1.38 to $84.05 after the company released its earnings results on Thursday.

Marlboro shipments fell 1.1% in the quarter to 72.3 billion units, driven by declines in Italy and the United Kingdom The Lark brand posted 20.2% growth, while the Philip Morris brand saw shipments grow 13.5%.

During the quarter, Philip Morris did not repurchase any shares, but announced a quarterly dividend of $1.00 per share. Street is currently looking for full-year 2015 earnings of $4.41 per share.

The company now anticipates that it will be at the upper end of its outlook for full-year adjusted earnings to climb 9 per cent to 11 per cent. The outlook is adjusted for currency-exchange fluctuations.