IMB vs. BATS, BMK, DGE, RKT, CCEP, TSCO, ABF, CCH, 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), Benchmark (BMK), Diageo (DGE), Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT), Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), Tesco (TSCO), Associated British Foods (ABF), Coca-Cola HBC (CCH), Bunzl (BNZL), and J Sainsbury (SBRY). These companies are all part of the "consumer defensive" sector.
Imperial Brands 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 compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, risk and media sentiment.
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.
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.
British American Tobacco pays an annual dividend of GBX 237.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.0%. Imperial Brands pays an annual dividend of GBX 153.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. 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 presently has a consensus price target of GBX 4,040, suggesting a potential upside of 2.10%. Imperial Brands has a consensus price target of GBX 3,600, suggesting a potential upside of 19.76%. Given Imperial Brands' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Imperial Brands is more favorable than British American Tobacco.
75.6% of British American Tobacco shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.9% of Imperial Brands shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of British American Tobacco shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Imperial Brands shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
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.
In the previous week, Imperial Brands had 2 more articles in the media than British American Tobacco. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for Imperial Brands and 4 mentions for British American Tobacco. Imperial Brands' average media sentiment score of 0.70 beat British American Tobacco's score of 0.38 indicating that Imperial Brands is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Summary
Imperial Brands beats British American Tobacco on 14 of the 18 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 IMB and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartMedia 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.
Skip Chart
Imperial Brands Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
This page (LON:IMB) was last updated on 10/25/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff