BofA Says British American Tobacco's H1 Results 'Likely a Non-event'

01:20 AM EDT, 07/15/2026 (MT Newswires) -- BofA Global Research expects British American Tobacco's (BATS.L, BTI.JO) first-half earnings report on July 30 to be "likely a non-event" after the tobacco giant's early June trading update. "Instead, we believe management's level of confidence on the earnings call will be more important for investors. Our 1H26 estimates are broadly in line with cons. on sales growth at [constant currencies] (BofAe +2.8% vs cons. +3.0%), New Categories growth (BofAe +15.5% vs +14.4%), EBIT growth (BofAe +3.9% vs +3.7%) and EPS (BofAe 158.4p vs 158.5p). We believe analyst expectations on EBIT offer some margin of safety. That said, we think the bar on EBIT growth at cc is modestly above sell-side expectations. Looking beyond the results, we expect investor attention to increasingly shift towards the [capital markets day] in September," according to a Tuesday note. Analysts forecast that the company's management will upgrade its full-year 2026 outlook at the September investor event, as the company is expected to have "greater visibility" on the trading environment. "We believe that US data for Modern Oral will be the key driver of investor debate ahead of the CMD. Some investors expect BAT's share gains in Modern Oral to moderate over the coming months following [Philip Morris International's] launch of Zyn Ultra, while BAT is expected to launch Velo Max in August/September. This leaves a window of several months during which PMI benefits from a new product offering in the market, while BAT continues to compete with Velo+, which could influence relative share trends in the near term," the note said. The stock is still rated at buy, with a price objective of 53 pounds sterling.