BATS vs. IMB, ULVR, DGE, RKT, TSCO, ABF, CCH, BNZL, SBRY, and BME
Should you be buying British American Tobacco stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of British American Tobacco include Imperial Brands (IMB), Unilever (ULVR), Diageo (DGE), Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT), Tesco (TSCO), Associated British Foods (ABF), Coca-Cola HBC (CCH), Bunzl (BNZL), J Sainsbury (SBRY), and B&M European Value Retail (BME). These companies are all part of the "consumer defensive" sector.
British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) and Imperial Brands (LON:IMB) are both large-cap consumer defensive companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, media sentiment, institutional ownership, earnings and profitability.
41.5% of British American Tobacco shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.9% of Imperial Brands shares are held by institutional investors. 10.5% of British American Tobacco shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 7.2% of Imperial Brands shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
In the previous week, British American Tobacco had 1 more articles in the media than Imperial Brands. MarketBeat recorded 2 mentions for British American Tobacco and 1 mentions for Imperial Brands. Imperial Brands' average media sentiment score of 0.00 beat British American Tobacco's score of -0.21 indicating that Imperial Brands is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
British American Tobacco pays an annual dividend of GBX 236 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.8%. Imperial Brands pays an annual dividend of GBX 149 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.7%. British American Tobacco pays out -3,647.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Imperial Brands pays out 6,478.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. British American Tobacco is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
British American Tobacco has a beta of 0.26, indicating that its stock price is 74% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Imperial Brands has a beta of 0.42, indicating that its stock price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.
British American Tobacco presently has a consensus target price of GBX 3,237.50, suggesting a potential upside of 34.06%. Imperial Brands has a consensus target price of GBX 2,265, suggesting a potential upside of 16.69%. Given British American Tobacco's higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe British American Tobacco is more favorable than Imperial Brands.
Imperial Brands has a net margin of 11.44% compared to British American Tobacco's net margin of -52.66%. Imperial Brands' return on equity of 39.00% beat British American Tobacco's return on equity.
Imperial Brands has lower revenue, but higher earnings than British American Tobacco. British American Tobacco is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Imperial Brands, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
British American Tobacco received 597 more outperform votes than Imperial Brands when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 74.05% of users gave British American Tobacco an outperform vote while only 69.56% of users gave Imperial Brands an outperform vote.
Summary
Imperial Brands beats British American Tobacco on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get British American Tobacco News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for BATS and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding BATS and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of LON and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
British American Tobacco Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
