Here’s What May Accelerate Philip Morris International (PM)’s Transition to Smokeless Products

Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Value Fund” second quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, its Investor Class fund ARTLX returned -13.40%, Advisor Class fund APDLX posted a return of -13.32%, and Institutional Class fund APHLX returned -13.32%, compared to a return of -12.21% for the Russell 1000 Value Index. Poor performance of the communications and health care sectors impacted the fund’s performance in the quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2022.

Artisan Partners discussed stocks like Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) in the second quarter investor letter. Headquartered in New York, New York, Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) is a tobacco company. On September 26, 2022, Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) stock closed at $90.17 per share. One-month return of Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) was -5.57% and its shares lost 8.38% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) has a market capitalization of $139.778 billion.

Here is what Artisan Partners specifically said about Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) in its Q2 2022 investor letter:

“On the positive side of the ledger, our top contributor was Swedish Match, a Swedish tobacco and nicotine products maker. The company received an all-cash takeover offer from rival Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM), which we also held in the portfolio, for SEK 106 per share—a 35% premium to Swedish Match’s prior closing share price. The deal is a good fit for PM as it reduces PM’s dependence on cigarettes—a category in steady decline—and accelerates the company’s transition to smokeless “reduced-risk” products (RRPs)—a category that has experienced rapid growth over the past five years. PM can also leverage its global scale to generate significant revenue synergies from these complementary product sets, as well as quickly gain access to the US market—the world’s largest market for RRPs and one where regulators have embraced RRPs and other less harmful nicotine products. We exited our position in Swedish Match as shares approached the takeout price.”

Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 56 hedge fund portfolios held Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) at the end of the second quarter which was 55 in the previous quarter.

We discussed Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) in another article and shared the list of high-yield dividend stocks to invest in for a stable income. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2022 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.