London, Feb 23, 2026, 08:02 GMT — Regular session
British American Tobacco shares edged lower in early London trade on Monday as the tobacco group kept its buyback running. The stock was down about 0.2% at 4,560 pence by 0802 GMT, after a 4,569 pence close, and traded between 4,557 and 4,572 pence. (Investing)
The move is small, but investors still watch the cadence. BAT has leaned hard on buybacks and dividends to keep the equity story simple: return cash, shrink the share count, defend earnings per share.
That matters right now because the market is pricing a steady transition away from cigarettes. Any hint the cash engine is wobbling — or that the shift to smokeless is stalling — can widen the range quickly.
A filing on Monday showed BAT bought 94,469 shares on Feb. 20 at prices between 4,481 and 4,596 pence, paying a volume-weighted average of 4,551.7968 pence. The company said it would cancel the stock, leaving 2,175,109,609 shares in issue excluding treasury, with 132,976,327 held in treasury. (TradingView)
Buybacks are straightforward: the company repurchases its own shares and cancels them, reducing the number of shares outstanding. Over time, that can lift per-share metrics even if topline growth is slow.
BAT’s broader backdrop is still U.S. nicotine, not London dealing screens. Earlier this month it flagged an AI-driven productivity programme expected to mean job cuts, with interim finance chief Javed Iqbal telling analysts, “It will have an impact on the size of the organisation,” while CEO Tadeu Marroco said he was “extremely encouraged by the U.S. performance of Velo” nicotine pouches. The company has pointed to Velo gaining share against Philip Morris International’s Zyn and Altria’s On!, as it tries to keep “new category” products growing. (Reuters)
But the downside case still sits with regulation and enforcement. Marroco told Reuters earlier this month that unregulated devices account for about 70% of U.S. e-cigarette sales and that a possible import block on some disposable vapes could cut that market by roughly a third — though he warned inventories and supply chains could delay any material impact until next year. (Reuters)
Next up, investors will pin calendars to dividends as much as headlines. BAT’s timetable shows the shares are due to trade ex-dividend on March 26 in London, ahead of a March 27 record date and a May 7 payment for the first quarterly instalment. (Bat)
