British American Tobacco p.l.c. (BAT) entered mid-December with its share price near multi-year highs, and the news flow on Wednesday, December 17, 2025 is very “capital allocation meets governance”: the company disclosed another daily share repurchase under its ongoing buyback programme and filed a director declaration under UK listing rules. Meanwhile, investors are still digesting BAT’s early-December FY2025 pre-close trading update, where management reaffirmed its medium-term growth algorithm but signaled that 2026 performance is likely to land at the lower end of its target range—largely because the U.S. vaping market remains distorted by illicit competition and uneven enforcement. [1]
Below is what matters for BAT stock (LSE: BATS) and the BAT ADR (NYSE: BTI) right now: the latest filings and price levels, what management guided, what analysts are projecting, and the key dates on the calendar heading into the company’s full-year results.
BAT stock price today: where BATS.L is trading on Dec. 17, 2025
In London trading on Dec. 17, British American Tobacco shares were quoted around 4,283p (about £42.83) and modestly higher on the session, with data showing an intraday range near 4,270p–4,291p. BAT’s 52‑week range has been wide—roughly 2,838p to 4,426p—a reminder that this “defensive” name can still move sharply when regulation, litigation, or guidance shifts. [2]
For U.S. investors, the BTI ADR last traded around the mid-to-high $50s in recent sessions, with $57.29 shown as a recent closing level (Dec. 16). [3]
Today’s headline filings: buyback execution + director declaration
1) BAT executed another share repurchase (145,000 shares)
BAT disclosed that it repurchased 145,000 ordinary shares (25p each) as part of its buyback programme, executed through Goldman Sachs International. The filing shows the purchase date as 16 December 2025 and reports a volume‑weighted average price of 4,297.83p on the London Stock Exchange (with no shares reported purchased on certain other venues in that notice). The company reiterated that repurchased shares are intended to be cancelled, reducing the share count. [4]
Why this matters for the stock: daily buyback announcements rarely change the long-term thesis by themselves, but they are an ongoing signal that BAT is prioritizing shareholder returns while it works to manage leverage and fund its transition toward “smokeless” categories.
2) UK Listing Rule filing: Non-Executive Director Karen Guerra’s new external appointment
BAT also published a notification under UK Listing Rule 6.4.9R(2) stating that, effective 16 December 2025, Karen Guerra, a Non-Executive Director of BAT, has been appointed as an Independent Director of Société BIC S.A. (Euronext Paris-listed). These director declarations are typically governance housekeeping, but they are still “news” in the strict filing sense—especially for institutions tracking board commitments and potential conflicts. [5]
The bigger story investors are still pricing: BAT’s December trading update and the 2026 “lower end” signal
Although today’s filings are incremental, BAT’s stock narrative in December is still anchored to the company’s FY2025 pre-close trading update (published Dec. 9).
What BAT guided for 2025 and 2026
In that update, BAT said it now expects approximately 2% growth in both revenue and adjusted profit from operations for FY2025. The company also highlighted that New Category revenue growth is expected to accelerate to double digits in the second half, resulting in mid-single-digit growth for the full year. [6]
For 2026 and beyond, BAT reiterated its “mid-term algorithm” (the company’s preferred growth framework) of roughly:
- +3% to +5% revenue growth
- +4% to +6% adjusted profit from operations growth
- +5% to +8% adjusted diluted EPS growth
…but importantly, it cautioned that 2026 performance is expected at the lower end of those ranges. [7]
Why “lower end” (especially in 2026) points back to U.S. vaping market structure
Reuters’ coverage of BAT’s update emphasized the same pressure point investors have been watching for months: competition in the U.S. vape market, where unregulated/unauthorized disposable products have taken meaningful share and complicated pricing, volume trends, and profitability for compliant players. BAT has argued that improved enforcement could help regulated brands like Vuse regain momentum, and it pointed to early signs of federal and state actions beginning to bite. [8]
This is also part of a broader arc Reuters has been tracking through 2025: BAT (and other large tobacco firms) have pushed for tougher enforcement against unauthorized products, even as the market’s scale and supply-chain complexity make clean-up slow and politically messy. [9]
Shareholder returns: buybacks are central again, and dividend dates are coming into view
BAT’s equity story has become unusually simple (by large-cap standards): harvest cash, pay a large dividend, and repurchase shares, while trying to build a less combustible future.
Buyback: what BAT has said recently
BAT’s December communications include an explicit plan for significant repurchases in 2026. The company announced a £1.3 billion share buyback for FY2026 alongside its pre-close update. [10]
Separate market coverage and company announcement summaries have also highlighted that BAT arranged for UBS to execute a tranche during the closed period ahead of results, consistent with UK market-abuse and listing-rule frameworks. [11]
Dividend: the dates BTI ADR holders are watching (U.S. record date and pay date)
For the BTI ADR (NYSE), Citi’s depositary receipt dividend page lists a U.S. record date of 12/30/2025 and a U.S. pay date of 02/09/2026, with a gross amount shown around $0.749068 per ADR and a net rate shown around $0.739068 (noted as preliminary on the listing). [12]
Different data vendors sometimes display ex-dates/record dates slightly differently across time zones and settlement conventions, so investors typically confirm through their broker before making any dividend-timing decisions.
Dividend: the UK ordinary share schedule (what BAT has already published)
BAT’s own investor materials reiterate that the interim dividend declared for the year ended 31 December 2024 was 240.24p per share, payable in four equal quarterly instalments of 60.06p across May 2025, August 2025, November 2025, and February 2026. [13]
Recent wire coverage also notes BAT’s February 2026 dividend logistics for specific registers (for example, local-currency handling and withholding frameworks for South Africa), which matters for investors holding via different share registers. [14]
Forecasts and analyst outlook: what Wall Street and data aggregators are implying for BTI
Analyst expectations around BAT are unusually split between:
- investors who see a high-yield “cash machine” with improving capital discipline, and
- investors who think the rerating has already done most of its work and that regulatory + category-transition risks deserve a lower multiple.
A few widely-followed consensus snapshots illustrate that tension:
- MarketBeat shows an average BTI 12‑month price target around $51, with a range that can stretch from roughly $40 to $62 (depending on the analyst set), implying downside from recent trading levels. [15]
- Investing.com shows an average 12‑month target around $56.875, with estimates ranging roughly $40.5 to $69, reflecting the fact that valuation views on tobacco remain highly dependent on assumptions about regulation, illicit competition, and the durability of pricing power. [16]
- Yahoo Finance’s quote summary for BTI also reflects a one‑year target estimate in the mid‑$50s and flags the late‑December ex‑dividend window. [17]
The practical takeaway: at current prices, a large portion of BAT’s expected total return over the next year may depend less on aggressive multiple expansion and more on dividends + buybacks, plus incremental proof that “New Categories” can grow profitably without being undercut by illicit product flows.
Independent analysis themes investors keep circling back to
Across recent market commentary, the same recurring themes show up:
1) “Smokeless” progress is real—but still not the majority
Commentary on BAT’s transformation often points out that smokeless products are growing, but cigarettes still dominate the profit pool today. One Investing.com analysis noted smokeless products were about 17.5% of overall revenues last year and referenced BAT’s longer-term ambition to be predominantly smokeless by 2035. [18]
2) Canada litigation remains a shadow over cash-flow certainty
BAT’s Canadian litigation provision—widely covered earlier in 2025—still matters to how investors think about balance-sheet flexibility and “surprise” cash uses. The Financial Times reported on the £6.2 billion provision tied to a proposed settlement framework in Canada, which previously jolted the share price and remains a live risk factor until fully resolved. [19]
3) Regulation is not a one-country story
Even if the market focus is the U.S., regulatory and political risk is global. Reuters has recently highlighted scrutiny around interactions between tobacco firms and EU officials (a reminder that policy debates can spill across borders), and separately covered enforcement and bans affecting vaping products in different jurisdictions. [20]
The next big catalyst: BAT’s Full Year 2025 Results (Feb. 12, 2026)
BAT’s own financial calendar lists the next major scheduled event as Full Year 2025 Results on 12 February 2026. That’s the moment the market will stop trading on “pre-close vibes” and start trading on audited numbers, segment detail, and 2026 starting positions. [21]
Between now and then, investors will be watching for:
- evidence that U.S. enforcement continues to improve conditions for regulated vape brands (including BAT’s Vuse)
- whether modern oral nicotine (including Velo) keeps scaling profitably
- how much buybacks and dividends can be sustained while still hitting the stated leverage path (BAT targets getting to 2.0–2.5x by end‑2026, per its update). [22]
Bottom line: BAT stock today is steady, but the “2026 execution” debate is alive
On Dec. 17, 2025, the fresh BAT-specific news is mostly procedural—another share repurchase disclosure and a director appointment filing—and the share price action in London looks calm. [23]
But under that calm surface, the market is still trying to answer one big question: can BAT deliver low-to-mid single digit growth in a world where the most visible “smokefree” category (vaping) is heavily affected by illicit supply, while regulators tighten and consumers migrate toward alternatives like nicotine pouches?
For investors, the near-term BAT thesis remains straightforward:
- Income (dividend schedule into early 2026 is visible for many holders),
- Capital returns (buybacks are ongoing and explicitly sized for 2026), and
- A February results catalyst that could reframe how credible the lower-end 2026 outlook really is. [24]
References
1. www.investing.com, 2. www.investing.com, 3. stockanalysis.com, 4. www.moneyweb.co.za, 5. www.moneyweb.co.za, 6. www.bat.com, 7. www.bat.com, 8. www.reuters.com, 9. www.reuters.com, 10. www.bat.com, 11. www.investegate.co.uk, 12. depositaryreceipts.citi.com, 13. www.bat.com, 14. www.tipranks.com, 15. www.marketbeat.com, 16. www.investing.com, 17. finance.yahoo.com, 18. uk.investing.com, 19. www.ft.com, 20. www.reuters.com, 21. www.bat.com, 22. www.bat.com, 23. www.moneyweb.co.za, 24. depositaryreceipts.citi.com
