British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) Shares Down 8.8% – Here’s What Happened

British American Tobacco p.l.c. (LON:BATS)’s stock price was down 8.8% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as GBX 3,058 ($38.06) and last traded at GBX 3,095 ($38.52). Approximately 7,627,224 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 74% from the average daily volume of 29,680,900 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 3,394 ($42.25).

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a GBX 2,800 ($34.85) price target on shares of British American Tobacco in a report on Thursday, December 12th.

British American Tobacco Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of £68.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.99, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is GBX 3,020.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is GBX 2,866.23.

British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported GBX 364.30 ($4.53) earnings per share for the quarter. British American Tobacco had a negative net margin of 52.84% and a negative return on equity of 25.94%. Analysts forecast that British American Tobacco p.l.c. will post 361.5079365 earnings per share for the current year.

British American Tobacco Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 19th were given a dividend of GBX 58.88 ($0.73) per share. 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. This represents a yield of 2.54%. British American Tobacco’s payout ratio is currently -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.