British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) Trading Down 8.8% - Should You Sell?

Shares of British American Tobacco p.l.c. (LON:BATS - Get Free Report) traded down 8.8% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as GBX 3,058 ($38.47) and last traded at GBX 3,095 ($38.94). 7,627,224 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 74% from the average session volume of 29,680,900 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 3,394 ($42.70).

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a GBX 2,800 ($35.22) price objective on shares of British American Tobacco in a research report on Thursday, December 12th.

British American Tobacco Trading Down 2.1 %

The company's 50 day simple moving average is GBX 3,026.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is GBX 2,873.39. The firm has a market cap of £66.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 74.63, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.47.

British American Tobacco (LON:BATS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported GBX 364.30 ($4.58) EPS for the quarter. British American Tobacco had a negative return on equity of 25.94% and a negative net margin of 52.84%. As a group, research analysts expect that British American Tobacco p.l.c. will post 361.5079365 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

British American Tobacco Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 19th were issued a dividend of GBX 58.88 ($0.74) per share. This represents a yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 19th. This is a boost from British American Tobacco's previous dividend of $57.72. British American Tobacco's payout ratio is -38.08%.

British American Tobacco Company Profile

BAT was founded in 1902 and was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1912. A constituent of the FTSE 100 since its creation in 1984, we have evolved, becoming the only truly global company in our sector. BAT is transforming and is well positioned with a global footprint and multi-category portfolio.