BATS vs. IMB, ULVR, DGE, CCEP, RKT, TSCO, CCH, KYGA, 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), Coca-Cola HBC (CCH), Kerry Group (KYGA), Associated British Foods (ABF), and Bunzl (BNZL). These companies are all part of the "consumer defensive" sector.
British American Tobacco vs. Its 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 contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, community ranking, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, media sentiment, institutional ownership and risk.
British American Tobacco has a beta of 0.27, indicating that its stock price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Imperial Brands has a beta of 0.42, indicating that its stock price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.
British American Tobacco presently has a consensus target price of GBX 2,800, indicating a potential downside of 21.59%. Given British American Tobacco's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe British American Tobacco is more favorable than Imperial Brands.
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.
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 large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
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 6.6%. Imperial Brands pays an annual dividend of GBX 153 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. 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 12 more articles in the media than Imperial Brands. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for British American Tobacco and 0 mentions for Imperial Brands. Imperial Brands' average media sentiment score of 1.11 beat British American Tobacco's score of 0.47 indicating that Imperial Brands is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
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.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding BATS 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.
British American Tobacco Competitors List
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This page (LON:BATS) was last updated on 6/11/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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