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 better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, dividends, media sentiment and institutional ownership.
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 large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
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, meaning that its stock price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Imperial Brands has a beta of 0.42, meaning that its stock price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, British American Tobacco and British American Tobacco both had 5 articles in the media. British American Tobacco's average media sentiment score of 0.68 beat Imperial Brands' score of 0.55 indicating that British American Tobacco is being referred to more favorably in the 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 presently has a consensus price target of GBX 4,040, suggesting a potential downside of 2.88%. Given British American Tobacco's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe British American Tobacco is more favorable than Imperial Brands.
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 10 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 IMB 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
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This page (LON:IMB) was last updated on 9/13/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
