(Reuters) - Philip Morris International on Thursday beat Wall Street expectations for quarterly profit, boosted by a let-up in soaring tobacco and labor costs and buoyant demand for its smokeless Zyn and IQOS products.
The company has bet heavily on Zyn and IQOS products as younger customers are showing a preference for these "smoke-free" alternatives to traditional combustible cigarettes.
Philip Morris has also been reaping benefits from the higher pricing of its traditional combustible cigarettes, after supply-chain snags inflated freight and raw-material costs for tobacco companies last year.
Demand for higher-margin IQOS devices - that heat cigarettes, instead of lighting them - and Zyn nicotine pouches has helped protect margins for the tobacco giant.
The company raised the lower-end of its full year profit forecast, and now expects earnings per share between $6.13 and $6.22, compared to its previous forecast of $6.10 and $6.22.
The company's second-quarter adjusted profit per share of $1.60 beat analysts' average estimates of a profit of $1.47, as per Refinitiv data.
