Imperial Brands (LON: IMB) Stock Update Today: Buyback Momentum, Debt Redemption, New Broker Coverage — What to Watch Next Week (Updated 13 Dec 2025)

Imperial Brands PLC (London Stock Exchange: IMB) ended the week with a sharp Friday pullback after briefly touching fresh 52‑week highs earlier in the week. The tobacco group remains in the spotlight for three reasons investors actually care about: heavy ongoing share buybacks, fresh corporate disclosures (Annual Report + AGM notice), and active balance-sheet housekeeping via an early redemption of euro notes.

As of the latest close (Friday, 12 December 2025), Imperial Brands finished at 3,179p (£31.79), down 2.63% on the day and sitting about 4.5% below its recent 52‑week high of £33.29 hit on 9 December. ^[1]

Below is a detailed recap of this week’s moves, the latest company and market news, and the week-ahead catalysts likely to drive IMB trading into mid‑December.

What happened to Imperial Brands stock this week?

Imperial Brands started the week relatively steady, surged to a new peak, and then gave back ground into Friday:

Mon 8 Dec: close 3,262p
Tue 9 Dec: close 3,312p, with the week’s high around 3,329p
Wed 10 Dec: close 3,283p
Thu 11 Dec: close 3,265p
Fri 12 Dec: close 3,179p ^[2]

In other words: a strong pop early-week, followed by a slow leak, ending with a bigger drop on Friday.

One data provider pegged Imperial Brands at -2.18% over five days and +24.52% year-to-date as of Friday’s close. ^[3]

On Friday specifically, MarketWatch described the session as broadly weak and noted Imperial Brands underperformed the FTSE 100 on the day. ^[4]

The headline driver: the £1.45bn share buyback is visibly “on”

If you’ve been wondering why Imperial Brands can look oddly “supported” during dips, the buyback is a big part of the answer.

Across the week, Imperial Brands disclosed multiple daily repurchases for cancellation under its £1.45 billion share repurchase programme (announced previously, with daily execution handled via Morgan Stanley in these RNS notices). ^[5]

Buyback disclosures this week (for cancellation)

8 Dec: repurchased 280,628 shares (avg 3,246.19p) ^[6]
9 Dec: repurchased 114,050 shares (avg 3,279.60p) ^[7]
10 Dec: repurchased 54,059 shares (avg 3,297.24p) ^[8]
11 Dec: repurchased 214,880 shares (avg 3,280.80p) ^[9]
12 Dec: repurchased 301,925 shares (avg 3,219.27p) ^[10]

After the 12 December buyback, Imperial Brands said the post‑cancellation issued share count (excluding treasury shares) would be 798,389,435. ^[11]

Why this matters for IMB shareholders

A buyback of this scale does three practical things:

Reduces share count, which can lift earnings per share (EPS) mechanically over time (all else equal).
Signals confidence in cash generation and management’s capital return policy.
Creates steady daily demand, which can dampen (not eliminate) volatility—until macro forces overwhelm it, as they did on Friday.

That last point is important: buybacks can be a tailwind, but they don’t make a stock immune to market-wide risk-off days.

Corporate news: Annual Report published, and AGM date set

On 11 December 2025, Imperial Brands published its Annual Report and Accounts 2025 and sent its Notice of Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2026 to shareholders. ^[12]

The AGM is scheduled for:

Date: Wednesday 28 January 2026
Time:9:30am
Location: Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel, College Green, Bristol ^[13]

For near-term trading, this is not usually a “price shock” item—but it does put the governance calendar back on investors’ radar and often prompts analysts to skim the report for any changes in risk language, strategy emphasis, or remuneration metrics.

Balance sheet move: Imperial Brands Finance to redeem €650m notes early

Another meaningful (but easy to overlook) announcement this week came from Imperial Brands Finance PLC, which issued an Issuer Call Notice to redeem in full a large euro bond ahead of maturity.

Key details from the notice:

Notes: €650,000,000 3.375% Guaranteed Notes due 26 Feb 2026
ISIN: XS1040508241
Optional redemption (call) date: 30 December 2025
Redemption amount: 100% of principal plus accrued/unpaid interest
Notice: irrevocable, with a stated minimum notice period of 15 calendar days ^[14]

Why the market cares

Early redemptions can be interpreted a few ways, but the “boring” explanation is often correct: reduce refinancing risk, simplify the maturity schedule, and potentially cut interest expense (or at least remove near-term rollover uncertainty). In a market that is still hypersensitive to rates and credit spreads, boring is sometimes bullish.

Governance note: Director declaration filed

Imperial Brands also filed a Director Declaration on 8 December 2025, stating that Executive Director Stefan Bomhard serves as a non-executive director of The Magnum Ice Cream Company N.V., whose shares were admitted to listing on multiple exchanges effective that day. ^[15]

This type of update is typically non-price-moving, but it’s part of the continuous disclosure stream investors expect from UK large caps.

Fresh broker/analyst coverage: Kepler Cheuvreux initiates at Buy

A notable new “street” data point hit on 12 December: Kepler Cheuvreux initiated coverage of Imperial Brands at Buy with a £36.50 price target (3,650p). ^[16]

That matters because new coverage can:

widen the pool of institutional eyes on the stock,
influence consensus targets over time, and
introduce a new framework for valuation debates (especially around NGP scale, pricing power, and capital returns).

Forecasts: what the numbers imply (without pretending anyone owns a crystal ball)

1) Company-posted analyst consensus (Visible Alpha based)

Imperial Brands publishes a snapshot of sell-side consensus (as of 5 November 2025) showing expectations for steady growth:

FY26 constant-currency growth: Tobacco & NGP net revenue +2.3%
FY26 group adjusted operating profit growth +3.9%
FY26 adjusted EPS: 343.5p (FY25: 313.5p in that consensus table) ^[17]

This aligns with a “slow-growth, high-cash-return” equity profile: modest top-line expansion, operational discipline, and shareholder returns doing a lot of the work.

2) Street price targets

Targets vary by provider and analyst pool, but the broad shape is consistent: mid‑£30s as a central tendency, with a wide range of views.

Investing.com (12 analysts): average target about 3,445.83p, range 2,700p–4,200p ^[18]
MarketBeat (smaller sample shown): average target about 3,562.50p, with high 4,200p and low 2,700p ^[19]
Jefferies (reported via MarketBeat): raised target to 3,700p and reiterated Buy (late Nov) ^[20]

A sensible takeaway isn’t “the stock will hit X.” It’s that the market is paying for durability and returns, while arguing about how much to credit NGP scale versus the long-run decline in combustibles.

The bigger investment narrative: pricing power + NGP scale + capital returns

Imperial Brands’ most recent full-year update (FY25, year ended 30 September 2025) reinforced the core thesis: a cash-generative tobacco business funding investment in reduced-risk products and significant shareholder returns.

Reuters reported Imperial Brands edged above profit expectations, highlighted continued growth in smoking alternatives (including e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, heated tobacco), and reiterated its commitment to 3%–5% annual profit growth alongside ongoing buybacks through 2030. ^[21]

That is the strategic “engine room” behind why buybacks are so central to the story: management is explicitly treating capital returns as a feature, not a leftover.

Dividends: the next cash date investors will circle

Imperial Brands’ investor calendar shows a third interim dividend payment scheduled for 31 December 2025. ^[22]

Dividend-focused investors also keep an eye on:

28 Jan 2026: AGM (relevant for approvals and messaging) ^[23]
19 Feb 2026: next ex‑dividend date listed on the company calendar ^[24]

Dividend yield estimates vary with price and source, but some market data pages currently show a yield around the ~5% area. ^[25]

Week ahead: what could move IMB between 15–19 December?

Imperial Brands doesn’t have a scheduled earnings release next week, so the biggest drivers are likely to be macro, FX, and ongoing buyback flow.

1) UK data: jobs and inflation

The UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) release calendar shows:

Labour market statistics:16 December 2025 (7:00am)
Consumer price inflation (CPI) — November 2025:17 December 2025 (7:00am) ^[26]

These can matter for IMB in a second-order way: they move Bank of England expectations, which moves UK rates, which moves sterling, which can influence large-cap defensives and global earners.

2) Bank of England decision: 18 December

The Bank of England lists its next MPC decision for 18 December 2025, with the current Bank Rate shown as 4% on its schedule page. ^[27]

Rate expectations can hit IMB through:

discount-rate effects on high-cash-return equities,
GBP sensitivity (translation of international cashflows),
general risk appetite for “defensive yield” stocks.

3) ECB meeting: 17–18 December

The ECB calendar shows a monetary policy meeting on 17–18 December 2025 with a press conference on Day 2. ^[28]
Reuters also previewed the meeting as a key event for markets watching the next rate move debate. ^[29]

4) Company-specific: more buyback RNS is the “default”

Given the cadence of this week’s announcements, investors will likely see additional daily/near-daily buyback disclosures (depending on execution days and reporting practices). ^[30]

And late December brings the €650m note redemption on 30 December, which could re-focus attention on cash and funding positioning (though it’s already announced and “irrevocable”). ^[31]

Key risks and watchpoints (the stuff that can bite)

No tobacco stock write-up is complete without acknowledging the hazards:

Regulatory and tax changes (UK/EU/US and elsewhere) can shift pricing power, volumes, and NGP growth trajectories.
NGP execution risk: scaling vapes/pouches/heated tobacco profitably is not automatic—even if growth is strong. ^[32]
Illicit trade and enforcement can distort volumes and share in certain markets.
FX volatility: Imperial Brands is UK-listed but globally exposed; sterling moves can change how international performance translates into reported GBP.

Bottom line for IMB stock (as of 13 Dec 2025)

Imperial Brands heads into next week with a clear, market-friendly setup—big buybacks, a visible dividend calendar, and a strategy centered on cash returns—but the share price is still being tugged around by broader market sentiment and the December macro calendar.

The stock closed Friday at 3,179p, down from the week’s peak near 3,329p, while broker targets and published consensus expectations remain anchored in the mid‑3,000p range with wide dispersion. ^[33]