“As shown by the increase in our forecast U.S. EPS growth to plus 5% to plus 7%, the underlying strength of our business and proactive mitigating actions have allowed us to more-than-compensate for this, and we expect to deliver on our objective of strong growth in dollar terms.”

In context

“mix effect, combustible recovery and further cost efficiency enable healthy margin expansion. We are accordingly raising our organic operating income growth forecast to plus 11% to plus 13% for the year. We continue to target adjusted gross margin expansion for both smoke-free product and combustible, and adjusted OI margin expansion for total PMI, all in both organic and dollar terms. Consequently, and also factoring a lower forecast net financing cost, we are raising our forecast for currency-neutral adjusted diluted EPS growth to plus 11% to plus 13%. This translates into a range of $6.33 to $6.45 including an unfavorable currency impact of $0.34 for the year at prevailing rates. The increased currency headwind versus prior guidance is primarily due to the Q2 impact already described. As shown by the increase in our forecast U.S. EPS growth to plus 5% to plus 7%, the underlying strength of our business and proactive mitigating actions have allowed us to more-than-compensate for this, and we expect to deliver on our objective of strong growth in dollar terms. Focusing on the second half in more detail. We expect another strong performance driven by excellent IQOS adjusted IMS growth, the progressive improvement in ZYN volume and continued positive impact from our actions to drive bottom-line growth. For Q3, we forecast a record high quarterly adjusted diluted EPS of $1.77 to $1.82 despite a significant step-up in commercial spending and an unfavorable currency impact of $0.02 at prevailing rates. This is in contrast to a forecast currency tailwind of $0.04 for H2 overall, which enables us to target accelerated U. S. dollar adjusted diluted EPS growth. We include a table of estimated currency impact by quarter in the appendix. This Q3 forecast notably reflects another quarter of dynamic growth with HTU shipment of 34 billion to 35 billion units”