London, June 18, 2026, 12:06 (BST)
- Imperial Brands shares were at 2,752 pence to sell and 2,754 pence to buy, slipping 0.94%. The stock opened at 2,770 pence.
- Imperial Brands bought back 250,000 shares on June 17, paying an average 2,777.5964 pence per share as part of its £1.45 billion buyback.
- FTSE 100 traded lower while investors looked to the Bank of England’s rate call and considered a hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve.
Imperial Brands was down around 0.9% at 2,754 pence by midday Thursday, after the stock fell on Wednesday as well. Shares have dropped about 2% since closing at 2,809 pence on Tuesday, with trading on Thursday in a range between 2,748 pence and 2,788 pence.
The drop tracked the wider London market and didn’t look like a new company-specific slide. The FTSE 100 traded down 0.94% at 10,410.01 at 10:16 GMT, with financials and materials among the weakest ahead of the Bank of England decision.
Imperial’s capital-return plan stayed in the frame in Thursday’s regulatory update. The RNS breakdown listed several trading venues for the June 17 buybacks. Cancelled shares mean fewer outstanding, bumping up the stake of each holder.
Imperial finished £809 million of buybacks in the six months to March and posted £2.6 billion in free cash flow for the past year. Adjusted operating profit ticked up 0.6% at constant exchange to £1.64 billion. Revenue from next-generation products — vapes, heated tobacco, nicotine pouches — gained 7.5%. CEO Lukas Paravicini said Imperial is “confident of delivering a step-up in adjusted operating profit growth” for the second half. Imperial Brands Corporate Site
Analyst forecasts as of June 11 see full-year adjusted operating profit at £4.09 billion, up 3.1%, with adjusted EPS at 333.7 pence. With the first-half numbers in, that means about £2.45 billion in operating profit needs to come through in the second half.
British American Tobacco slipped around 0.7%. Earlier this month, the bigger company stuck to guidance for mid-teens growth in new-category revenue in 2026 and kept its £1.3 billion buyback on track. That raises the bar on growth targets for Imperial’s smaller alternatives arm.
Buyback aside, operating risks stay. Imperial’s share in its top five markets dropped 16 basis points in the first half, with management pushing price and profit instead of volume. RBC analysts called the market share slide a concern. Cigarette sales fell and alternatives cut in, leaving first-half profit just under what was expected.
Imperial is set to pay a 41.68p interim dividend on June 30. The next ex-dividend date is August 20, and the company reports full-year results on November 17.
