BATS vs. IMB, ULVR, DGE, CCEP, RKT, TSCO, KYGA, CCH, ABF, and BNZL
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), Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT), Tesco (TSCO), Kerry Group (KYGA), Coca-Cola HBC (CCH), Associated British Foods (ABF), and Bunzl (BNZL). These companies are all part of the "consumer defensive" sector.
British American Tobacco vs.
Imperial Brands (LON:IMB) and British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) are both large-cap consumer defensive companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, community ranking, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends and media sentiment.
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.
Imperial Brands pays an annual dividend of GBX 153 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. British American Tobacco pays an annual dividend of GBX 236 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.6%. Imperial Brands pays out 64.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. British American Tobacco pays out -38.1% 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.
Imperial Brands currently has a consensus price target of GBX 2,205, indicating a potential downside of 21.86%. British American Tobacco has a consensus price target of GBX 3,183.33, indicating a potential upside of 2.03%. Given British American Tobacco's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe British American Tobacco is more favorable than Imperial Brands.
Imperial Brands has higher earnings, but lower revenue 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.
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.
Imperial Brands has a beta of 0.42, indicating that its share price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, British American Tobacco has a beta of 0.27, indicating that its share price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500.
68.0% of Imperial Brands shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 40.7% of British American Tobacco shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.3% of Imperial Brands shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.6% of British American Tobacco shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, British American Tobacco had 2 more articles in the media than Imperial Brands. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for British American Tobacco and 6 mentions for Imperial Brands. Imperial Brands' average media sentiment score of 0.68 beat British American Tobacco's score of 0.35 indicating that Imperial Brands is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Summary
British American Tobacco beats Imperial Brands on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding {thisCompany.Symbol} and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
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.
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This page (LON:BATS) was last updated on 4/3/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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