Imperial Brands (LON:IMB) Hits New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Imperial Brands PLC (LON:IMB)’s share price hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as GBX 3,322 and last traded at GBX 3,322, with a volume of 3103671 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at GBX 3,262.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IMB has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Imperial Brands from GBX 3,425 to GBX 3,650 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Panmure Gordon reissued a “buy” rating and set a GBX 4,200 price target on shares of Imperial Brands in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Imperial Brands in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Imperial Brands from GBX 3,600 to GBX 3,700 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on shares of Imperial Brands from GBX 2,400 to GBX 2,700 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of GBX 3,562.50.

Imperial Brands Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of £26.26 billion, a PE ratio of 13.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.51 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 166.91, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.72. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is GBX 3,137.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is GBX 3,036.15.

Imperial Brands (LON:IMB) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 18th. The company reported GBX 315 earnings per share for the quarter. Imperial Brands had a net margin of 11.44% and a return on equity of 41.84%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Imperial Brands PLC will post 246.5723613 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Alan Johnson bought 600 shares of Imperial Brands stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of GBX 3,066 per share, with a total value of £18,396. Company insiders own 0.43% of the company’s stock.

About Imperial Brands