London, May 18, 2026, 14:04 BST
- Imperial Brands traded at 2,888p, gaining 2.52% in London on Monday as the London Stock Exchange ran its normal session.
- Imperial Brands left full-year guidance unchanged in its half-year update last week, but reported a 36.5% drop in operating profit and said share was softer in core tobacco markets.
- Imperial Brands is still about cash returns, but analysts are looking to see if share losses start to widen.
Imperial Brands shares climbed Monday as the stop-start rebound from last week’s half-year numbers continued. Investors looked at cash returns, pricing, and what some saw as a steadier outlook for the full year.
Shares in the FTSE 100 tobacco group climbed 2.52% to 2,888p, a gain of 71p. The stock started at 2,811p and reached as high as 2,896p. Around 782,000 shares changed hands, based on delayed UK prices from AJ Bell.
The move caught attention in a London market that wasn’t showing much risk appetite. Reuters said the FTSE 100 edged up 0.16% at 10:55 GMT, but the FTSE 250 dropped 0.59% as traders pointed to inflation worries and political uncertainty under Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The London Stock Exchange traded on its regular schedule. Hours run 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. BST. The next market holiday comes on May 25.
Imperial, which makes Winston, Davidoff and Gauloises, reported last week that tobacco net revenue was up 1.5% for the six months ended March 31. Price hikes made up for weaker volumes in the period. Net revenue in next-generation products, including vapes, heated tobacco and nicotine pouches, climbed 7.5%.
Adjusted operating profit was up 0.6% at constant currency, hitting 1.64 billion pounds. The company’s own measure takes out some one-offs and non-core items. Reported operating profit dropped 36.5% after costs from a Delaware settlement and spending for its 2030 plan.
Imperial Brands CEO Lukas Paravicini said the group saw a “positive start” in the first half and is “on track” with its 1.45 billion pound buyback. The interim dividend is up 4%. Imperial Brands Corporate Site
The battle for market share is still close. Reuters reports Imperial usually prices below British American Tobacco and Philip Morris, and the pressure in the alternative smoking space is still intense. This is key since investors are looking for Imperial to squeeze more profit from its main tobacco unit and also grow next-generation product sales to balance out falling cigarette demand.
Imperial shares still looked moderately undervalued after the numbers, Morningstar senior equity analyst Kristoffer Inton wrote. Inton said he saw the share losses as not a big worry, since they mostly showed a push for profitability. He also pointed out that NGPs are still a small part of Imperial’s overall investment story.
But slippage is limited. Imperial’s market share in key markets—the United States, Germany, the UK, Spain and Australia—dropped by 16 basis points in the first half. One basis point equals one-hundredth of a percentage point. Reuters reported that RBC analysts saw the decline as a worry, since previous share gains were key to Imperial’s turnaround.
Paravicini said geopolitics is another risk for the company. Lasting effects from Middle East tensions might appear in the 2027 financial year, he told reporters, either in higher input costs such as filters and plastics or in softer consumer demand. “We will always monitor the situation,” he said. Reuters
Imperial shares are higher, as investors seem willing to wait. The buyback and higher dividend help. The big question is if the company can keep prices up as sales volume drops, and not lose share to bigger competitors.
