British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) Trading Down 8.8% - Time to Sell?

British American Tobacco p.l.c. (LON:BATS - Get Free Report) shares dropped 8.8% on Thursday . The company traded as low as GBX 3,092 ($38.92) and last traded at GBX 3,097 ($38.98). Approximately 39,653,848 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 29% from the average daily volume of 30,714,018 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 3,394 ($42.72).

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a "neutral" rating and set a GBX 2,800 ($35.24) target price on shares of British American Tobacco in a report on Thursday, December 12th.

British American Tobacco Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of £67.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.99, a P/E/G ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.27. The stock has a 50 day moving average of GBX 3,026.27 and a 200 day moving average of GBX 2,871.43. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 74.63.

British American Tobacco (LON:BATS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported GBX 364.30 ($4.59) earnings per share (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, analysts anticipate that British American Tobacco p.l.c. will post 361.5079365 EPS for the current fiscal year.

British American Tobacco Increases Dividend

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

About British American Tobacco

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.