Imperial Brands PLC (LSE:IMB) will release full-year results on Tuesday at the upper end or slightly ahead of the City analyst consensus, predicted US bank Citigroup.
Known for brands JPS, Winston and Rizla, the FTSE 100 tobacco company is due to release final year results on Tuesday, having kicked off a £1bln share buyback last month.
September’s update also saw chief executive Stefan Bomhard upgrade sales growth guidance for the year to 1% on a constant currency basis, with adjusted operating profit growth of 1%, as he said the company was launching the next, three-year phase of its turnaround, focused on increasing sales at a mid-single-digit percentage, with adjusted operating profit also growing at a mid-single-digit percentage.
"Investors appear to be putting aside their doubts over the long-term future of smoking and looking at how Imperial Brands can adapt in the face of ongoing regulatory pushback by developing its next-generation products, in favour of the relative short-term dependability of demand at a time when the economic outlook is so uncertain," said analysts at AJ Bell.
Bristol-based Imperial’s shares are among a handful of London blue-chips that are up by more than a single-digit percentage in 2022, with fellow cigarette maker BAT being another.
Comments from the company's management on its next generation products (NGP) such as e-cigarette blu and oral nicotine product Zone X will get most of the attention though its market share resilience in tobacco should again be reiterated.
Citi sees organic revenue growth of 3.8% with strong cashflows and with the buyback Imperial will pay out more than £2.3bn including dividends this year.
The broker has a neutral rating and target price of 2,300p a slight premium to the current 2,020p market price.