BATS vs. IMB, ULVR, BMK, DGE, RKT, CCEP, TSCO, CCH, ABF, and KYGA
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), Benchmark (BMK), Diageo (DGE), Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT), Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), Tesco (TSCO), Coca-Cola HBC (CCH), Associated British Foods (ABF), and Kerry Group (KYGA). 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 investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, media sentiment and earnings.
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 currently has a consensus price target of GBX 4,040, indicating a potential downside of 2.18%. Given British American Tobacco's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe British American Tobacco is more favorable than Imperial Brands.
In the previous week, British American Tobacco had 1 more articles in the media than Imperial Brands. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for British American Tobacco and 5 mentions for Imperial Brands. Imperial Brands' average media sentiment score of 0.82 beat British American Tobacco's score of 0.01 indicating that Imperial Brands is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
British American Tobacco pays an annual dividend of GBX 2.38 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.1%. Imperial Brands pays an annual dividend of GBX 1.53 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.0%. British American Tobacco pays out 170.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Imperial Brands pays out 51.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.
British American Tobacco has a beta of 0.27, suggesting that its stock price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Imperial Brands has a beta of 0.42, suggesting that its stock price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.
75.6% of British American Tobacco shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.9% of Imperial Brands shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of British American Tobacco shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Imperial Brands shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Imperial Brands has higher revenue and earnings than British American Tobacco. Imperial Brands is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than British American Tobacco, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Imperial Brands beats British American Tobacco on 11 of the 18 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 9/4/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
