British American Tobacco’s (BATS) Buy Rating Reiterated at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group reissued their buy rating on shares of British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) in a research note released on Monday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a GBX 3,300 ($40.76) price objective on the stock.

British American Tobacco Stock Performance

BATS stock opened at GBX 2,337 ($28.87) on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 75.41. The firm has a market cap of £52.12 billion, a P/E ratio of -361.21, a P/E/G ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.25. British American Tobacco has a 12-month low of GBX 2,233 ($27.58) and a 12-month high of GBX 3,022.20 ($37.33). The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is GBX 2,349.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is GBX 2,389.96.

British American Tobacco Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, September 26th will be given a dividend of GBX 58.88 ($0.73) per share. This is a positive change from British American Tobacco’s previous dividend of $57.72. This represents a dividend yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 26th. British American Tobacco’s dividend payout ratio is currently -3,647.60%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Karen Guerra acquired 4,150 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was purchased at an average cost of GBX 2,380 ($29.40) per share, for a total transaction of £98,770 ($121,998.52). Insiders purchased a total of 4,170 shares of company stock worth $9,923,952 in the last three months. 10.49% of the stock is owned by insiders.

British American Tobacco Company Profile

British American Tobacco p.l.c. engages in the provision of tobacco and nicotine products to consumers worldwide. It also offers vapour, heated, and modern oral nicotine products; combustible cigarettes; and traditional oral products, such as snus and moist snuff. The company offers its products under the Vuse, glo, Velo, Grizzly, Kodiak, Dunhill, Kent, Lucky Strike, Pall Mall, Rothmans, Camel, Natural American Spirit, Newport, Vogue, Viceroy, Kool, Peter Stuyvesant, Craven A, State Express 555 and Shuang Xi brands.