Philip Morris’ stock about to get ‘smoking hot,’ Barron’s says

Philip Morris’ (PM) main cigarette business is slowly dying, but the tobacco giant isn’t going gently into the night. The company just announced two deals that will keep it healthy in the years to come, Teresa Rivas writes in this week’s edition of Barron’s. Its November acquisition of Swedish Match further cements its global leadership in oral nicotine and adds to its portfolio of what it calls reduced-risk products, which don’t require users to burn tobacco, the author notes. That deal closed a month after it paid Altria (MO) $2.7 billion for the rights to sell Philip Morris’ flagship IQOS product in the U.S., marking PM’s first return to the domestic market since the two companies split in 2008. Together, the deals mean Philip Morris could have a longer, brighter future than many investors had feared, Rivas writes. Reference Link