Latest on Nike Inc (NKE), The Boeing Company (BA) and Phillip Morris International Inc. (PM)

Bloomberg reporter Scarlet Fu has commented on three corporate developments on the “Bloomberg Surveillance.” Starting with Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), Fu said that the company has reported an increase in quarterly profits and that the results announced were slightly better than what analysts had expected. The fourth quarter revenues from continuing operations of Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE were up 11% to $7.4 billion, whereas the revenues from continuing operations for the fiscal year 2014 were up by 10% to $27.8 billion. Fu added that Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) has seen strong sales of apparel and footwear in Western Europe.

NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE)

Second on Fu’s news list was The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA). She said that The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) has recently found that the reason for falling sales of its 747-8 cargo jets is one of its own planes i.e. the twin-engine and wide-body Boeing 777.

Due to the large cargo carrying capacity of The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) 777  airline jets, major delivery companies like Fed Ex, etc. are shifting deliveries of less-urgent shipments to the cargo holds of the Boeing 777 jets. The shifting of cargo from cargo jets to Boeing 777’s is causing a slowing demand for new cargo planes for The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA).

Fu added: “One broker says he hasn’t seen the wide-body freight jet in four years now.”

Reporting on the third development, Fu said that “Phillip Morris (Phillip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM)) wants to take advantage of the E-Cigarette trend. It is developing a Marlboro product that heats tobacco instead of burning it. They are called the HeatSticks.”

Fu said that unlike E-Cigarettes that contain liquid nicotine, Phillip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM)’s ‘HeatSticks’ contain real tobacco. She added that the ‘HeatSticks’ will be available in Japan and Italy soon this year and will be available in more markets next year.

Phillip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) is said to have invested nearly $2 Billion for over a decade in developing the products that include a device called iQOS, that will be used to heat the ‘HeatSticks.’ The company expects that the device would help it in increasing its profit by $700 million when the sales reach 30 billion units.

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