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

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

British American Tobacco Price Performance

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

British American Tobacco (LON:BATS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly 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%. On average, analysts anticipate 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 announced a dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 19th were given a GBX 58.88 ($0.74) dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 19th. This represents a dividend yield of 2.54%. This is a positive change from British American Tobacco's previous dividend of $57.72. British American Tobacco's dividend payout ratio is currently -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.