British American and Imperial Light up Tobacco Sector

Source from:  ShareCast  10/23/2012

Tobacco stocks were performing well on Monday afternoon with sector giants British American and Imperial lighting up the category. The stocks were up 0.74% and 0.79%, respectively, by 15:44 in London. One possible reason for the lift could be a broker note out from Credit Suisse on US peer Philip Morris International in which it retained its 'neutral' rating, saying that it sees "greater upside elsewhere in our coverage". The Swiss broker said that PMI trades at around 15 times next year's earnings, a premium to British American and Imperial, which have price-to-earnings ratios of 14 and 10.5, respectively. Credit Suisse reiterated 'outperform' ratings on the shares of the UK-listed counterparts. Enditem