IMBBY - Imperial Brands Half-Year Earnings: Winning Through Losing
2024-05-17 11:00:09 ET
Summary
- Imperial Brands PLC has released its interim results for the first half of fiscal 2024 - judging by the post earnings pop, it must have been a solid report.
- Considering the stock has returned more than 33% since October 2023, significantly outperforming the S&P 500, I answer whether it is time to sell Imperial Brands stock now.
- Besides sharing my view on Imperial's earnings, I make sense of the 24% increase in net debt, clarifying whether this is a sign of financial distress and operational issues.
- I also provide an update on Cayman Islands-based vulture investor Kenneth Dart's holding in Imperial Brands stock.
Introduction
My regular readers know my bullish stance on tobacco stocks in general, and while I've been mostly covering Altria Group, Inc. ( MO ), British American Tobacco p.l.c. ( BTI , BTAFF ) and Philip Morris International Inc. ( PM ) here on Seeking Alpha, I've been rather silent on Imperial Brands PLC ( IMBBY , IMBBF ).
The company is undoubtedly the most unpopular in an already broadly shunned sector, mainly due to its dividend cut in May 2020 and its elusive smoke-free product portfolio. Given that IMBBY is a more or less pure-play cigarette company, the stock served as an excellent example to explain my personal approach to valuing tobacco stocks (see my December 2023 article )....
Imperial Brands Half-Year Earnings: Winning Through Losing