LONDON, June 6, 2026, 23:02 (BST)
Imperial Brands ended the week with a sharp Friday rebound, rising 2.79% to close at 2,761p and beating a barely higher FTSE 100 before London trading shut for the weekend. The London Stock Exchange’s standard equity session runs from 08:00 to 16:30 on weekdays, leaving investors to wait until Monday for the next price test.
That matters because the move came after a rough spell for the tobacco group. Even after Friday’s gain, the stock remained well below its 52-week high of about 3,632p, while recent market data showed a 52-week low of 2,626p earlier in the week.
For the full week, Imperial rose about 2.4%, based on a May 29 close of 2,696p and Friday’s 2,761p finish. The FTSE 100 slipped about 0.4% over the same stretch, from 10,409.28 to 10,368.05, despite Friday’s small gain.
The near-term support is plain enough: cash returns. A regulatory filing showed Imperial bought back 160,000 shares on June 4 at an average price of 2,685.5871p, part of its £1.45 billion repurchase plan. A buyback is when a company buys its own shares, often reducing the number in issue and lifting earnings per share if profit holds steady.
Chief Executive Lukas Paravicini framed the May half-year update as steady rather than spectacular. He said Imperial had made “a positive start” to its evolved 2030 strategy, and pointed to robust pricing in cigarettes and growth in next-generation products, or NGP — a term the company uses for vapes, heated tobacco and oral nicotine products. Imperial Brands
The company has also kept its full-year targets. Paravicini told analysts Imperial was “well on track” to deliver its guidance for adjusted operating profit, a profit measure that strips out some items to show the underlying business trend.
Analysts are split between the cash story and the growth worry. Morningstar senior equity analyst Kristoffer Inton wrote on May 13 that Imperial shares “look undervalued to us,” but also said long-term revenue growth was lower than many peers and that NGP was still a small part of the valuation case. Morningstar
The peer read-through is mixed. British American Tobacco rose 1.94% on Friday, but earlier in the week its shares fell after it failed to raise group guidance even as it lifted expectations for smoking-alternative revenue. In the United States, Altria gained 2.25% on Friday and Philip Morris International rose 1.89%, suggesting tobacco shares had some defensive demand on a weak Wall Street day.
But the risk is that Imperial’s second half does not carry the weight investors now expect. The company has warned that a prolonged Middle East conflict could raise costs and hurt demand, while earlier market-share losses in key regions left shareholders watching whether price rises can keep offsetting cigarette volume declines.
Next week’s focus is likely to stay on buyback disclosures, tobacco-sector sentiment and whether Friday’s bounce holds above the recent low. The next scheduled shareholder event is the first interim dividend payment on June 30, followed by an Aug. 20 ex-dividend date and full-year results due Nov. 17.
For now, Imperial’s story is less about a sudden growth turn than about discipline: pricing, cash flow and steady repurchases. Friday gave the bulls a better close. Monday will show whether they can keep it.
