Rupert Murdoch is poised to take advantage of the boom in America’s sports gambling industry by increasing his stake in US fantasy sports and betting website FanDuel.
Rupert Murdoch set to increase wager on US gambling boom brisbanetimes.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from brisbanetimes.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Tobacco firms’ cigarette sales at airports and other travel hubs have been hit hard by lockdowns.
BAT shares fell 4 per cent, or 108.5p, to 2640p after its announcement, and are down 20 per cent in the past year.
David Kimberly, an analyst at Freetrade, said: ‘Investors looking at BAT have probably felt a lot like an ex-smoker staring at an open pack of Camel Blues. You know they’re probably not going to be good for you in the long-run but the hit that high-yield dividend gives can be hard to resist.’
A 4.6pc drop in cigarette revenues was cushioned by a near-15 per cent jump in sales of ‘new categories’ including e-cigarettes, tobacco heating products and oral nicotine pouches.
BENGALURU (Feb 17): British American Tobacco forecast on Wednesday e-cigarette and tobacco heating devices would contribute to earnings for the first time this year as more smokers switch to products perceived as less harmful in the pandemic.
The maker of Lucky Strike and Newport cigarettes saw three million more customers use its new categories products - including e-cigarette, tobacco heating and oral nicotine - during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
It also sold more higher priced cigarettes, helping adjusted earnings to reach 331.7 pence per share (EPS), beating analysts average estimate of 329.87 pence, according to Refinitiv data.
However, pretax profits fell short of expectations, knocking shares in the world s second-largest tobacco company down around 5% in early trading.
| UPDATED: 15:11, Tue, Feb 16, 2021
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Investors took collective action recently as a number of retail investors, organised through Reddit and other social platforms, boosted GameStop s share price higher by investing en masse into the company. The unexpecting video game retailer became the target of rebellious investors who decided to push back against large financial institutions and hedge funds who were deemed to have too much control over the market.