IMB vs. BATS, DGE, CCEP, RKT, TSCO, CCH, ABF, KYGA, BNZL, and SBRY
Should you be buying Imperial Brands stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Imperial Brands include British American Tobacco (BATS), Diageo (DGE), Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT), Tesco (TSCO), Coca-Cola HBC (CCH), Associated British Foods (ABF), Kerry Group (KYGA), Bunzl (BNZL), and J Sainsbury (SBRY). These companies are all part of the "consumer defensive" sector.
Imperial Brands vs.
British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) and Imperial Brands (LON:IMB) are both large-cap consumer defensive companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, media sentiment, valuation, dividends, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations and community ranking.
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.
British American Tobacco pays an annual dividend of GBX 236 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.5%. 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.
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. British American Tobacco's average media sentiment score of 0.56 beat Imperial Brands' score of 0.00 indicating that British American Tobacco is being referred to more favorably in the media.
40.7% of British American Tobacco shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.0% of Imperial Brands shares are owned by institutional investors. 10.6% of British American Tobacco shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.3% of Imperial Brands shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
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.
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.
British American Tobacco presently has a consensus price target of GBX 3,125, indicating a potential downside of 1.30%. Imperial Brands has a consensus price target of GBX 2,600, indicating a potential downside of 13.42%. Given British American Tobacco's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe British American Tobacco is more favorable than Imperial Brands.
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.
Summary
British American Tobacco beats Imperial Brands on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get Imperial Brands News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for IMB and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
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.
Imperial Brands Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
This page (LON:IMB) was last updated on 4/26/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
Buy IMB Stock Free IMB Stock Alerts