British American Tobacco (BATS) Competitors

British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) and Imperial Brands (LON:IMB) are both large-cap consumer defensive companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, profitability, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, community ranking, media sentiment and institutional ownership.

Is BATS or IMB more profitable?

Imperial Brands has a net margin of 11.44% compared to British American Tobacco's net margin of -52.84%. Imperial Brands' return on equity of 41.84% beat British American Tobacco's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
British American Tobacco	-52.84%	-25.94%	5.16%
Imperial Brands	11.44%	41.84%	6.92%

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of BATS or IMB?

40.7% of British American Tobacco shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.0% of Imperial Brands shares are held by institutional investors. 10.6% of British American Tobacco shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.3% of Imperial Brands shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts rate BATS or IMB?

British American Tobacco presently has a consensus target price of GBX 3,125, suggesting a potential downside of 1.64%. Imperial Brands has a consensus target price of GBX 2,600, suggesting a potential downside of 13.91%. Given British American Tobacco's higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe British American Tobacco is more favorable than Imperial Brands.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
British American Tobacco	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Imperial Brands	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Is BATS or IMB a better dividend stock?

British American Tobacco pays an annual dividend of GBX 236 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.4%. Imperial Brands pays an annual dividend of GBX 153 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. British American Tobacco pays out -38.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Imperial Brands pays out 64.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. British American Tobacco is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the media refer more to BATS or IMB?

In the previous week, British American Tobacco had 2 more articles in the media than Imperial Brands. MarketBeat recorded 3 mentions for British American Tobacco and 1 mentions for Imperial Brands. Imperial Brands' average media sentiment score of 0.52 beat British American Tobacco's score of 0.47 indicating that Imperial Brands is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
British American Tobacco	2 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Imperial Brands	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has higher earnings & valuation, BATS or IMB?

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.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
British American Tobacco	£25.81B	2.71	-£13.64B	-£619.76	-5.13
Imperial Brands	£17.31B	1.46	£1.98B	£236.12	12.79

Which has more volatility & risk, BATS or IMB?

British American Tobacco has a beta of 0.27, indicating that its share price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Imperial Brands has a beta of 0.42, indicating that its share price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in BATS or IMB?

British American Tobacco received 597 more outperform votes than Imperial Brands when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 74.01% of users gave British American Tobacco an outperform vote while only 69.56% of users gave Imperial Brands an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
British American Tobacco	Outperform Votes 1230 74.01%	Underperform Votes 432 25.99%
Imperial Brands	Outperform Votes 633 69.56%	Underperform Votes 277 30.44%

Summary

Imperial Brands beats British American Tobacco on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.