British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) Shares Down 8.8% – Should You Sell?

British American Tobacco p.l.c. (LON:BATS)’s stock price traded down 8.8% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as GBX 3,058 ($38.49) and last traded at GBX 3,095 ($38.96). 7,627,224 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 74% from the average session volume of 29,680,900 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 3,394 ($42.72).

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a GBX 2,800 ($35.24) price target on shares of British American Tobacco in a report on Thursday, December 12th.

British American Tobacco Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 74.63, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.47. The business has a 50 day moving average of GBX 3,026.27 and a 200 day moving average of GBX 2,871.43. The company has a market cap of £67.98 billion, a PE ratio of -4.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.27.

British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported GBX 364.30 ($4.59) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. British American Tobacco had a negative return on equity of 25.94% and a negative net margin of 52.84%. As a group, research analysts predict that British American Tobacco p.l.c. will post 361.5079365 EPS for the current year.

British American Tobacco Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Thursday, December 19th were given a dividend of GBX 58.88 ($0.74) per share. This represents a yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 19th. This is a positive change from British American Tobacco’s previous dividend of $57.72. British American Tobacco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -38.08%.

British American Tobacco Company Profile

BAT was founded in 1902 and was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1912. A constituent of the FTSE 100 since its creation in 1984, we have evolved, becoming the only truly global company in our sector.

BAT is transforming and is well positioned with a global footprint and multi-category portfolio.