LONDON, Jan 8, 2026, 09:51 GMT — Regular session
British American Tobacco (BATS.L) shares rose 0.3% to 3,979 pence by 0933 GMT, trimming a two-day slide in the London-listed tobacco group. In the United States, its ADR (BTI) was down about 1.4% in early premarket trading.
The move followed a new buyback disclosure that kept attention on capital returns at the start of the year, with investors now looking past day-to-day cigarette volumes to the bigger question: how much cash BAT can keep sending back while it pushes harder into vaping and nicotine pouches.
BAT’s buyback programme, first set out in March 2024, calls for repurchased shares to be cancelled — a mechanical lift for per-share metrics because the share count shrinks. That matters in a sector where growth is scarce and the share register is heavy with income investors.
In Thursday’s notice, BAT said it bought 158,668 shares on Jan. 7 at prices between 3,961 and 4,011 pence, with a volume-weighted average price of 3,981.6961 pence. (A volume-weighted average price is the average paid, weighted by the size of each trade.)
The stock has been choppy this week. It fell 1.7% on Wednesday and 0.8% on Tuesday, leaving BAT still below the 4,000 pence handle that traders often treat as a near-term line in the sand.
The buyback runs alongside a cautious message from management. In December, BAT said it expected 2026 revenue growth to sit at the lower end of its mid-term 3%-5% range as U.S. vape competition and regulation weighed, even as it flagged better enforcement against illicit vapes; CEO Tadeu Marroco said, “I’m trying to be cautious for 2026.” Rae Maile, an analyst at Panmure Liberum, wrote the update was “perhaps not quite what the share price needed” after a strong run. Reuters
For now, the tape is quiet. BAT has traded between 3,962 and 3,989 pence so far on Thursday, and its next quarterly dividend is due on Feb. 4, a calendar marker for income holders who tend to anchor the name.
But buybacks do not fix everything. A tougher regulatory turn on nicotine products, another surge in unregulated vapes, or a sharper-than-expected drop in cigarette demand could hit margins and make the cash-return story harder to defend.
