London, May 4, 2026, 14:12 BST
- Imperial Brands picked up 220,000 shares for cancellation in its most recent disclosed buyback.
- London trading is paused for the Early May bank holiday. Eyes now turn to what happens Tuesday, with half-year results set for May 12.
- Cash returns are in the spotlight, but market-share pressure, currency headwinds, and Middle East risk aren’t making things easy for investors.
Imperial Brands PLC has ramped up its buyback efforts, snapping up 220,000 ordinary shares for cancellation. The £1.45 billion share-repurchase programme stays in the spotlight, just ahead of the cigarette maker’s first-half results.
Imperial Brands, headquartered in Bristol and behind cigarette names like Winston, Davidoff and Gauloises, picked up shares on May 1 via Barclays Capital Securities at an average 2,802.0454 pence each, according to a filing. That buyback came to roughly £6.2 million based on that price, trimming the number of ordinary shares outstanding—excluding those held in treasury—to 777,509,671.
The schedule is key here. With London markets shut Monday for the Early May bank holiday, investors won’t get to react to the new buyback announcement—or to Imperial’s flagged share losses in its top five markets—until the following session. According to the London Stock Exchange, May 4, 2026, is also marked as a non-trading day for the same holiday.
Imperial finished May 1 at 2,816.50 pence, logging a 0.55% gain, according to Investing.com, after reaching 2,826.50 pence intraday. Even with the uptick, shares remain under their April 13 close—sentiment took a hit after the trading update.
Imperial last month reaffirmed its outlook for fiscal 2026, sticking with targets like low-single-digit growth in tobacco revenue, double-digit gains for next-generation products, and group adjusted operating profit up 3% to 5%, all on a constant-currency basis. The company’s next-generation products—or NGP—cover vapes, heated tobacco, and oral nicotine pouches.
The company, though, signaled it now anticipates only a slight overall share drop in its five largest markets — the United States, Germany, Britain, Spain and Australia — as the focus shifts toward value and profit rather than just volume. That tweak has shifted sentiment around a stock traditionally supported by solid cash flow, steady dividends and buybacks.
On April 14, Reuters said the stock slid more than 8% after the warning. RBC analysts flagged that Imperial’s turnaround had relied heavily on five years of market-share gains, so news of an expected first-half drop rattled them. Reuters pointed out that Imperial usually goes lower on price compared to British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International, who push harder on premium brands and innovation budgets.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, flagged that Imperial “must work hard to generate the cash flow” supporting its dividends and buybacks. Analysts, he noted, came away underwhelmed by the trading update—market share erosion and FX headwinds weighed, despite the company sticking with its full-year profit outlook. AJ Bell
Morningstar’s Kristoffer Inton flagged tobacco as Imperial’s “main value driver” in a note this April, pointing out it’s expected to contribute 96% of projected fiscal 2025 tobacco and NGP net revenue. Inton said Imperial lags competitors in NGP, thanks to a fast-follower approach. That leaves the traditional tobacco segment carrying even more weight for the group than for its peers. Morningstar
The worry here: the second half could be left carrying too much of the load. Imperial expects first-half adjusted operating profit to edge just a bit higher versus last year, with most of the gains pushed into the latter part of the year. The company also pointed to a 2.0% to 2.5% hit to first-half earnings per share from currency swings, and noted that the Middle East conflict has brought more uncertainty on both geopolitical and macro fronts.
The company reported no significant hit to its business from the conflict so far, though it flagged uncertainty around what the second half could bring. Fuel, freight and inflation continue to weigh, with the business’s reliance on combustible tobacco cash flow still front and center.
Imperial will post half-year numbers for the six months through March 31 on May 12, per its financial calendar. Investors are waiting to see if the buyback narrative can hold up, or if weak market share and a profit outlook weighted toward the back end will keep the stock under strain.
