04 September 2025, Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart: The Iqos lettering and brand logo can be seen on the facade above the entrance to a branch of the company in the city center of Stuttgart (Baden-Württemberg) on 04.09.2025. Photo: Matthias Balk/dpa (Photo by Matthias Balk/picture alliance via Getty Images)
dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
In the last decade, Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM) has returned a notable $74 billion back to its shareholders via dividends and buybacks. This shareholder-focused approach has delivered exceptional results in 2025, with the stock posting an impressive 30% year-to-date return, significantly outperforming the broader market despite recent volatility and establishing PM as one of the year’s standout consumer staples performers. Philip Morris’s unwavering commitment to income generation reached a new milestone in September 2025 when the company announced an 8.9% dividend increase, raising the quarterly dividend to $1.47 per share from $1.35, marking the 18th consecutive year of dividend increases since becoming a public company in 2008 and bringing the annualized dividend rate to $5.88 per share.
The tobacco giant’s transformation strategy was further validated through robust financial performance in the first half of 2025, with revenue and earnings exceeding expectations, driven by accelerating growth in its smoke-free products portfolio, which now accounts for 42% of total net revenues.
Philip Morris has strategically paused share repurchases in 2025 to focus capital allocation on strategic investments and dividend growth, while maintaining its disciplined approach to returning cash to shareholders through its industry-leading dividend yield of approximately 3.84%. Let’s look at some numbers and compare how this payout power stacks up against the market’s biggest capital-return machines.
That being said, if you seek an upside with less volatility than holding an individual stock like PM, consider the High Quality Portfolio. It has comfortably outperformed its benchmark—a combination of the S&P 500, Russell, and S&P MidCap indexes—and has achieved returns exceeding 91% since its inception. Why is that? As a group, HQ Portfolio stocks provided better returns with less risk versus the benchmark index; less of a roller-coaster ride, as evident in HQ Portfolio performance metrics.
Interestingly, PM has given back the 31st largest sum to shareholders in history.
PM Stock Shareholder Returns
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Why should you care? Because dividends and share repurchases deliver direct, tangible returns of capital to shareholders. They also reflect management’s confidence in the company’s financial stability and ability to yield consistent cash flows. Moreover, there are more firms that exhibit similar traits. Here’s a list of the top 10 companies arranged by total capital returned to shareholders via dividends and stock buybacks.
Top 10 Companies By Total Shareholder Return
Top 10 Companies By Total Shareholder Return
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For the complete ranking, visit Buybacks & Dividends Ranking
What do you notice here? The total capital returned to shareholders as a percentage of the current market cap seems inversely proportional to growth prospects for reinvestments. Companies like META and MSFT are growing significantly faster and in a more predictable manner than others, yet they have returned a smaller portion of their market cap to shareholders.
That’s the flip side of high capital returns. While they are appealing, one must ponder the question: Am I sacrificing growth and sound fundamentals? With that in mind, let’s examine some figures for PM. (see Buy or Sell PM Stock for further details)
PM Stock Fundamentals
- Revenue Growth: 7.2% LTM and 7.1% last 3-year average.
- Cash Generation: Almost 23.0% free cash flow margin and 36.4% operating margin LTM.
- Recent Revenue Shocks: The lowest annual revenue growth over the past 3 years for PM was 4.3%.
- Valuation: PM has a P/E multiple of 29.0
- Opportunity vs S&P: Relative to S&P, PM provides higher valuation, greater revenue growth, and improved margins
PM Stock Fundamentals
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PM Historical Risk
It’s important to note that this stock isn’t immune to significant declines. It plunged about 41% during both the Global Financial Crisis and the 2018 correction. The COVID-19 crash was not as severe, but it still erased around 32%. Even the recent inflation shock caused it to decrease by over 22%. Therefore, despite solid fundamentals, such pullbacks are part of the market dynamics when there is a downturn.
However, the risk extends beyond major market crashes. Stocks also drop during favorable market conditions — consider occurrences like earnings reports, business updates, and changes in outlook. Check out PM Dip Buyer Analyses to understand how the stock has bounced back from sharp declines in the past.
Also, investing in a single stock without comprehensive analysis can be risky. Consider the Trefis Reinforced Value (RV) Portfolio, which has outperformed its all-cap stocks benchmark (combination of the S&P 500, S&P mid-cap, and Russell 2000 benchmark indices) to produce strong returns for investors. Why is that? The quarterly rebalanced mix of large-, mid-, and small-cap RV Portfolio stocks provided a responsive way to make the most of upbeat market conditions while limiting losses when markets head south, as detailed in RV Portfolio performance metrics.