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 mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as GBX 3,092 ($38.92) and last traded at GBX 3,097 ($38.98). 39,653,848 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 29% from the average session volume of 30,714,018 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 3,394 ($42.72).

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

British American Tobacco Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of £67.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.99, a P/E/G ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 74.63, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.88. The business has a 50 day moving average price of GBX 3,023.89 and a 200-day moving average price of GBX 2,869.91.

British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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%. Research analysts predict that British American Tobacco p.l.c. will post 361.5079365 EPS for the current fiscal year.

British American Tobacco Increases Dividend

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

About British American Tobacco

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.