BATS.L - British American Tobacco p.l.c.
| Previous Close | 3,463.00 |
| Open | 3,468.50 |
| Bid | 3,465.50 x 0 |
| Ask | 3,466.00 x 0 |
| Day's Range | 3,444.50 - 3,481.50 |
| 52 Week Range | 34.85 - 3,507.00 |
| Volume | 3,150,832 |
| Avg. Volume | 3,805,430 |
| Market Cap | 79.517B |
| Beta (5Y Monthly) | 0.60 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 12.91 |
| EPS (TTM) | 268.60 |
| Earnings Date | Feb. 27, 2020 |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | 2.03 (5.86%) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | Dec. 24, 2019 |
| 1y Target Est | 3,825.26 |
- Reuters
UK tobacco shares rise on U.S. e-cigarette ban exemptions
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday said e-cigarette makers will be banned from selling pod-based e-cigarette flavours, including fruit, dessert and mint, in the United States from February. The ban was less stringent than one U.S. President Donald Trump had proposed in September, when he threatened to remove all flavours, including menthol, from all types of e-cigarettes to curb a teenage vaping epidemic. BAT shares rose as much as 2.5% and were the biggest gainers in the FTSE 100 index where many shares were hit by heightened tensions in the Middle East.
- Investing.com
Stocks - Tesla, BAT, Newmont Rise in Premarket; Incyte Falls
Investing.com -- Stocks in focus in premarket trade on Thursday, 3rd January.
- Bloomberg
Big Tobacco Is Living on a Vape and a Prayer
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The next big thing for big tobacco has turned into a bit of a nightmare. Vaping took off as a potentially healthier alternative to smoking for adults looking to kick the habit. But then it caught on with a whole new generation, sparking a teen epidemic in the U.S and fears that they could graduate to smoking traditional cigarettes. Matters worsened with a spate of illnesses among some users of electronic cigarettes, raising questions about the safety of vaping for young and old.In the U.K., the fallout from declining sales of tobacco alternatives across the Atlantic has hit British American Tobacco Plc and Imperial Brands Plc hard. Now as new management teams at both companies try to figure out what’s the best strategy back to growth, their fortunes will be driven more by regulations in the U.S. than their business closer to home. But this doesn’t have to be bad news. Heightened scrutiny in the U.S. can dispel concerns about safety, and eventually pave the way for companies to expand their vaping technology to devices that deliver cannabis, vitamins and medicines. Vaping first came under scrutiny for its appeal to teenagers. Altria Group Inc.-backed Juul Labs Inc., has been besieged by lawsuits accusing it of using sweet fruit and candy flavors to overtly target under-aged users. The situation escalated over the summer, after a spate of illnesses and deaths related to electronic-cigarette use. ECigIntelligence, a data provider, now forecasts a 13% decline in the U.S. vaping market in 2020. Previously it had forecast an increase of more than 10%.As the world’s biggest vaping market, accounting for about 45% of global sales in 2019, it’s little wonder the U.S. slowdown is hurting. Imperial, which sells Winston cigarettes in the U.S., warned on profit in September, and parted company with its chief executive officer, Alison Cooper, a week later. BAT, maker of Dunhill and Lucky Strike cigarettes, recently said sales growth from its new generation products would be at the lower end of its forecast range of 30%-50%. A few months earlier, it had guided to the midpoint.With the scrutiny of vaping, having a broad-based portfolio of tobacco alternatives is crucial. Here BAT is well placed, having invested $4 billion over the past five years. Seven months since becoming CEO, Jack Bowles has reorganized its alternatives into three global brands: Glo for heated tobacco, Vuse for vaping and Velo for oral nicotine products. That shows commitment and urgency. It’s still not clear which category, if any, will be the winner, so having options on each is wise.Vaping probably has the most long-term potential. In the meantime, heat not burn options may come to prominence, especially as they haven’t been drawn into the controversy. They’re already popular in Japan, but with Philip Morris International Inc. now selling its IQOS device in the U.S. too, BAT may need to spend more in this area.The $49 billion purchase of the shares it did not already own in Reynolds American Inc. in 2017 stretched BAT’s balance sheet, pushing net debt to more than 6 times Ebitda. But leverage has come down to around 3.5 times, according to an estimate by Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Duncan Fox. That’s still high, but it gives Bowles more scope to invest and pay the dividend.Rival Imperial has made a big bet on vaping with its Blu brand, while it also has a strong position in oral tobacco. But it was late into heat not burn, only launching Pulze in Japan in May. Whoever succeeds Cooper as CEO will need to decide whether to expand in this category, or double down on vaping. Either way, it will mean more investment. For that, the new CEO can draw on the cash generated by the traditional cigarette business, an up to 2 billion-pound asset disposal program and a new dividend policy. The company will return any additional cash to shareholders through buy-backs. It should divert at least some of this into tobacco alternatives instead.Both companies should take care not to create a teen vaping craze at home. After complaints from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other organizations, the U.K.’s advertising regulator this month banned BAT from using public Instagram accounts to promote smoking alternatives like e-cigarettes. However, it didn’t find that the company had designed ads specifically to target youth.At least investment decisions could be made against a calmer market backdrop in the U.S. There’s a growing consensus that the vaping-related illnesses and deaths involved vaping oils carrying the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol or THC. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned against using black-market products.In 2020, new U.S. regulations will require companies to submit applications by May to keep their e-cigarettes on the market. Big tobacco has the resources to go through this complicated and expensive process. Smaller producers may not. Over about the next 12 months, this regime could reduce some of the competitive pressures on big tobacco. But in both tobacco and newer alternatives, it’s not going to be plain sailing. Numerous U.S. states have outlawed some kinds of e-cigarettes, and although a federal ban on vape flavors aside from tobacco now looks less likely after backtracking by President Donald Trump, it can’t be ruled out. Meanwhile, at some point, U.S. regulators may return their attention to efforts to reduce the amount of nicotine and ban menthol flavors in traditional cigarettes, bringing more pain to what remains tobacco companies’ biggest and most profitable segment by far. (Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP, has campaigned for and given money in support of a nationwide ban in the U.S. on flavored e-cigarettes and tobacco.)Pressure there, and everywhere, could bring more industry hook ups. Philip Morris International and Altria in September ended their brief merger flirtation. Such talks could always come back onto the agenda again or the two may look abroad. Imperial has long been seen as a takeover target, with Japan Tobacco Inc. considered the most likely buyer. A new Imperial CEO may walk in the door only to find that there is a predator hard on the company’s heels.To contact the author of this story: Andrea Felsted at afelsted@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Melissa Pozsgay at mpozsgay@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Andrea Felsted is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the consumer and retail industries. She previously worked at the Financial Times.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Simply Wall St.
3 Days Left Until British American Tobacco p.l.c. (LON:BATS) Trades Ex-Dividend
Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see British...
- Bloomberg
Instagram Won’t Let Influencers Promote Vaping Products
(Bloomberg) -- Instagram is finally making rules to govern content in influencer advertising.Influencers, the photo-sharing app’s most-followed users who are paid by brands to post, will no longer be allowed to promote products related to vaping, tobacco and weapons, Instagram said Wednesday in a blog post. The decision came after the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority ruled this week that British American Tobacco can’t use influencer marketing to advertise e-cigarettes. An Instagram representative said the move to ban such posts more broadly was unrelated.Instagram, owned by Facebook Inc., has long allowed people with thousands or even millions of followers to operate their own sponsored-content operations, outside the Facebook ad-buying system, without the level of oversight applied to the rest of the company’s advertising. For years, the company felt that if an influencer had cultivated an audience willing to hear their messages, Facebook shouldn’t get in the way.However, there’s been a surge of sponsored content promoted by influencers, so Instagram wants to “establish clear rules to help protect our community,” at least when it comes to vaping, weapons and tobacco, according to a spokeswoman. Facebook already has rules against such products in its official advertising programs.Instagram reaches a younger demographic than Facebook’s flagship social-media app, and that audience may be more easily swayed by promotions from famous users of the platform. Influencers popular with teens on Instagram have especially helped spread the appeal of e-cigarettes, drawing U.S. Federal Trade Commission scrutiny over their promotional tactics. Beginning next year, Instagram, which recently started requiring new users to disclose their birth dates, will restrict the audience for influencer ads about alcohol and diet supplements.Having new rules doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be enforced. A few years ago, after pressure from the FTC on advertising disclosures, Instagram started to require influencers to use a specific branded-content tool to disclose the money behind their posts. Influencers regularly flout that rule with little consequence, and sometimes don’t even disclose whether they are paid to post about a product.(Updates with U.K. authorities’ ruling in second paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Frier in San Francisco at sfrier1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Alistair Barr, Molly SchuetzFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Investing.com
British American Tobacco on Fire After Big Upgrade
Investing.com - British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) jumped midday Monday after a strong vote of confidence from Bank of America (NYSE:BAC).
- Simply Wall St.
Is British American Tobacco p.l.c.'s (LON:BATS) ROE Of 9.7% Concerning?
One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will...
- Reuters
BAT says U.S. vaping slowdown will curb growth of e-cig business
U.S. health officials have reported more than 2,000 cases of vaping-related lung illness and 47 deaths linked to its use in the country, leading to tighter regulatory scrutiny and individual state bans. This has led to a drop in demand for the devices, pushing BAT to forecast revenue growth in its new categories business - e-cigarettes, tobacco heating and oral products - to be at the low end of its 30-50% target. It had previously anticipated revenue growth in the middle of that range.
- Investing.com
Premarket London: BAT Upbeat Despite U.S. Vaping Crackdown
Investing.com -- Here is a summary of regulatory releases from the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday, 27th November. Please refresh for updates.
- Reuters
UPDATE 2-Trump to meet with vaping industry as he mulls tighter regulation
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he will be meeting with vaping industry representatives as his administration considers tightening e-cigarette regulations amid a nationwide outbreak of vaping-related injuries and deaths. "Will be meeting with representatives of the Vaping industry, together with medical professionals and individual state representatives, to come up with an acceptable solution to the Vaping and E-cigarette dilemma. Trump did not give a time for the meeting or offer any other details.
- Yahoo Finance
Expert witnesses in Big Tobacco cases explain why Juul doesn’t have a ‘get out of jail free card’
As federal and state-level investigations into vaping companies like Juul pile up, experts who testified in Big Tobacco cases say a similar storm is brewing.
- Reuters
Reynolds American files for FDA review of e-cigarette
The FDA has set a May 2020 deadline for e-cigarette makers to submit a formal application to keep their products on the market amid its efforts to curb the use of e-cigarette among teens. The Trump administration also outlined plans in September to remove all flavoured e-cigarettes from store shelves, pointing the finger at sweet flavours that had drawn millions of children into nicotine addiction.
- Reuters
BAT says none of its e-cigs linked to U.S. vaping illnesses as far as it knows
U.S. health officials on Thursday said there were now 530 confirmed and probable cases and seven deaths from severe lung-related illnesses tied to vaping, up from just 380 cases reported a week earlier. "To the best of our knowledge, no product developed or manufactured by British American Tobacco (BAT) has been involved in these cases," said David O'Reilly, director of Scientific Research at the tobacco company. No e-cigarette or vaping product, substance, additive or brand has been consistently identified in the illness cases, nor has any one product or substance been conclusively linked to lung injury in patients, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday.
- The Guardian
British American Tobacco cuts 2,300 jobs in shift towards vaping
Company aims to increase revenues from ‘potentially reduced-risk products’ to £5bn. British American Tobacco (BAT) has announced plans to cut 2,300 jobs by 2020 in readiness for a shift towards non-tobacco products, a day after Donald Trump said he was considering a ban on flavoured e-cigarettes. The vast majority of BAT’s £24.5bn revenue in 2018 came from traditional cigarettes – its brands include Rothmans, Dunhill and Lucky Strike – but the company said it could save money to invest in alternative products such as vaping and heated tobacco by stripping out layers of management around the world. A spokesperson declined to say how many of the job cuts would fall in the UK, where 2,500 of its 55,000 staff are based, including at its London headquarters. The chief executive, Jack Bowles, who took over this year after the eight-year tenure of Nicandro Durante, said he wanted to make BAT “a stronger, simpler and faster organisation” that was ready for a future in which people moved away from cigarettes. He said BAT aimed to derive £5bn of its revenue from what it called “new category” or “potentially reduced-risk products” by the 2023/24 financial year. That would mean more than doubling the £1.8bn it made last year from vaping, tobacco-heated products and oral tobacco, which includes pouches such as Snus, popular in Scandinavia. On Wednesday Trump unveiled proposals to ban certain flavoured e-cigarettes in the US to limit their use by teens, amid concern about a mysterious lung illness has killed at least five people and hospitalised others. The US is a large and growing market for BAT’s vaping products, led by its flagship brand Vype. Of the £1.8bn it already makes from products other than cigarettes, £318m comes from vaping. A spokesperson for BAT declined to comment on whether Trump’s plans could punch a hole in its £5bn revenue target for “potentially reduced-risk products”. The company said: “We welcome the Trump administration and the FDA shining a spotlight on the important issue of youth access to vapour products. We have always been clear that youth should not use vapour products and have had stringent measures in place to address this for some time. “We share President Trump’s concern that some flavours, such as those resembling ‘kid-friendly’ food products, may play a role in increasing youth appeal and that marketing activities should not be directed to youth. “It is important to note that we do not market such vapour flavours and in fact we have supported measures to remove vapour products intended to mimic children’s food products or otherwise designed to target youth, and have procedures in place to ensure our products are only marketed to adult tobacco consumers.” BAT said it would continue to work with the FDA but made no mention of concern among US health professionals about potential links between vaping and lung disease.
- Reuters
BAT stubs out 2,300 jobs as new CEO tackles tobacco sector changes
Shares of the second-largest tobacco company by sales were up 1.6 %, the biggest boost to the broader FTSE index on Thursday, after the maker of Lucky Strike and Dunhill cigarettes said it will cut 2,300 roles as it eliminates duplication and consolidates business units. The move by BAT, which employed more than 56,000 people at the end of last year, 629 of them senior managers, comes a day after President Donald Trump said that the U.S. would remove all flavored e-cigarettes from shelves, as officials warned millions of children had been drawn into nicotine addiction.
- Reuters
UPDATE 3-Trump administration seeks ban on flavored e-cigarettes to combat youth addiction
WASHINGTON/LOS ANGELES, Sept 11 (Reuters) - The Trump administration announced plans on Wednesday to remove all flavored e-cigarettes from store shelves in a widening crackdown on vaping, as officials warned that sweet flavors had drawn millions of children into nicotine addiction. President Donald Trump and top U.S. officials expressed concern about surging teenage use of e-cigarettes, and the move comes as health officials are investigating a handful of deaths and potentially hundreds of lung illnesses tied to vaping. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said that, with Trump's blessing, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was working on a "guidance document" that would lead to a ban of all e-cigarette flavors aside from tobacco flavoring.
- Yahoo Finance
Vaping device CEO calls for government regulation of industry after sixth vaping-related death
A sixth person died from lung disease related to vaping but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still trying to determine what is making more than 450 people nationwide ill.
- Motley Fool
It's Not Cigarettes Bringing Altria and Philip Morris International Together Again
Smoking alternatives are the future of the tobacco industry and these industry giants.
- Motley Fool
5 Top Tobacco Stocks to Buy Now
With growth prospects and healthy dividend income, there's a tobacco stock that fits well in nearly any investor's portfolio.
- Motley Fool
4 Reasons Philip Morris International Shouldn't Merge With Altria
PMI shouldn’t agree to bail out Altria’s ailing domestic business.
