BATS vs. IMB, ULVR, DGE, CCEP, RKT, TSCO, CCH, ABF, KYGA, 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), Associated British Foods (ABF), Kerry Group (KYGA), 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 businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings and media sentiment.
British American Tobacco pays an annual dividend of GBX 236 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.1%. 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.
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.
British American Tobacco has a beta of 0.27, suggesting that its share price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Imperial Brands has a beta of 0.42, suggesting that its share price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.
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, 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 currently has a consensus target price of GBX 3,633.33, suggesting a potential downside of 6.76%. Given British American Tobacco's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe British American Tobacco is more favorable than Imperial Brands.
In the previous week, British American Tobacco and British American Tobacco both had 5 articles in the media. Imperial Brands' average media sentiment score of 0.86 beat British American Tobacco's score of 0.67 indicating that Imperial Brands is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Summary
Imperial Brands beats British American Tobacco on 9 of the 17 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 7/25/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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