London, May 2, 2026, 17:02 BST
- Imperial Brands PLC snapped up 220,000 shares for cancellation on May 1, continuing its £1.45 billion buyback push.
- The filing comes just ahead of first-half results on May 12. Investors are eyeing whether full-year guidance still leans on a stronger second half.
- The stock finished Friday at 2,816.5 pence, gaining 0.55%. This comes after a sluggish run through April following its trading update.
Imperial Brands PLC snapped up 220,000 ordinary shares for cancellation on May 1, putting around £6.2 million into the buyback at an average price of 2,802.0454 pence each, according to a regulatory filing. The Winston and Davidoff maker is pushing ahead with its £1.45 billion repurchase program. Barclays handled the trades on the London Stock Exchange.
The clock’s ticking: Imperial’s first-half numbers land May 12, just under three weeks since the company reaffirmed its annual goals—while signaling most of the profit gains will come later in the year. Sure, the buyback helps, but there’s more in play.
Investors are juggling a shrinking share count, which props up earnings per share, against a murkier operating picture. According to a separate filing, Imperial reported 778,023,888 voting rights as of April 30, while 62,589,137 ordinary shares sat in treasury.
Imperial finished Friday at 2,816.5 pence, up 0.55%, Bloomberg data show. Still, shares haven’t climbed back to their 3,082 pence close from April 13—the session right before the trading update brought fresh worries over market share and the outlook for the second half.
On April 14, the company pointed to firm tobacco pricing and fresh next-gen products as the key drivers for low-single-digit growth in tobacco and NGP net revenue for the first half. NGPs—next-generation products—cover newer nicotine offerings, including vapes, heated tobacco, and oral pouches.
Imperial, though, flagged a slight combined drop in market share within its biggest five—U.S., Germany, UK, Spain, and Australia. Shares skidded over 8% on the news, according to Reuters, as the group leaned heavily on a better performance later in the year to hit its full-year goals.
Derren Nathan, who heads equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, described the update as a “slow but steady start” to the year. Still, he noted investors weren’t impressed, citing market share pressure and mounting losses in NGPs. Nathan added it remains premature to say if those products will fill the gap left by the declining tobacco business. Hargreaves Lansdown
UBS dialed back its stance on Imperial, dropping the stock to “neutral” from “buy” and trimming the price target down to 3,150 pence from 3,500. Tougher competition, the bank noted—citing Altria’s price moves in U.S. combustibles and British American Tobacco’s nicotine pouch efforts—factored into the downgrade. UBS now forecasts just 8% growth for Imperial’s NGP revenue in fiscal 2026, well under the 14% consensus. Sharecast
The backdrop here is no small thing: Imperial’s strategy banks on raising tobacco prices, keeping costs in check, and steadying cash returns, while the bigger players pour money into alternatives to smoking. “Imperial Brands still has pricing power,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell. He pointed out that cash flow covers both dividends and buybacks. Still, tobacco doesn’t make the cut for investors with strict ESG mandates. AJ Bell
There’s a catch: guidance is carrying more of the load now. Imperial pointed to a shaky geopolitical and macro picture linked to the Middle East conflict, plus a potential FX hit to EPS. On top of that, there’s the $200 million payout to R.J. Reynolds in the first half—thanks to a Delaware Supreme Court ruling. Another $234 million hangs over the company, to be paid out over about three years.
The capital-return angle still holds, for the moment. Investors will find out on May 12 whether the actual operations are starting to match that narrative.
