London, June 25, 2026, 11:10 (BST)
- BAT jumped 7.9% in three sessions through Wednesday. The FTSE 100 was up 0.9% over the same stretch.
- The gain put around £7.4 billion on the company’s market value, which tops both its announced annual dividend and planned 2026 buyback put together.
- The stock dipped 0.1% in early trading Thursday, with the implied dividend-and-buyback yield down to roughly 6.5% from 7.0%.
British American Tobacco p.l.c. (LON:BATS) shares edged down 0.1% to 4,672 pence as of 11:01 BST Thursday. The move follows a run where the stock gained 7.9% over three sessions. The FTSE 100 opened higher, posting a 0.3% gain.
Shares of BAT finished at 4,337p Friday, then moved to 4,446p Monday, 4,585p Tuesday and reached 4,678p on Wednesday. FTSE 100 rose roughly 0.9% during that stretch. BAT’s move left it about seven points ahead of the index.
BAT’s declared annual dividend stands at 245.04p, a 5.25% yield at Thursday’s price. The company also has a £1.3 billion buyback plan for 2026. That brings the stated total cash return to around 6.53% of equity value. Friday’s close saw that figure at 7.03%, so the move has pushed the implied yield down 50 basis points.
With BAT’s new voting share count of 2.166 billion, the market cap rose by £7.39 billion from Friday to Wednesday. The yearly dividend runs about £5.31 billion at those levels. Adding the buyback, the combined total is roughly £6.61 billion. BAT’s latest filing said it bought 494,286 shares from June 15 to June 18, paying around £22.4 million at an average price of about 4,532p.
Here’s the problem for investors. Over just three days, the market added more to BAT’s value than the company intends to hand back all year in dividends and buybacks. Buybacks also now retire fewer shares at this higher price. At 4,672p, £1.3 billion gets about 27.8 million shares, or 1.29% of the current voting shares before fees and any further moves in the price.
BAT is still looking for a stronger showing in the second half after its June update stuck with 2026 revenue growth at the low end of 3% to 5%, and kept adjusted profit growth at the low end of 4% to 6%. New Categories revenue should climb at a mid-teens pace. CEO Tadeu Marroco said there’s a big U.S. illicit-vape opportunity, calling “the size of the prize… very high.” Some investors had looked for a revenue guidance upgrade, Barclays analyst Pallav Mittal said. Reuters
Morningstar’s Kristoffer Inton put a fair-value estimate of 4,350p on the stock on June 3, calling shares “fairly valued.” As of Thursday, the stock traded 7.4% above that level. Morningstar
Derren Nathan at Hargreaves Lansdown values BAT at 12.3 times forward earnings after the June update, above the 10-year average of 10.3 times. He puts the stock’s yield at 5.5%, which trails the 7.0% average for the past decade. Nathan said BAT’s cigarette business will need to do better in the second half to hit its guidance.
BAT is set to report half-year results on July 30, its next scheduled event.
