HomeBusinessIs buying British American Tobacco shares today good preparation for life?

Is buying British American Tobacco shares today good preparation for life?

As they approach retirement, many investors are turning to a dividend-focused investment strategy. That’s a solid plan, but there’s a risk that trying to generate the largest passive income stream will lead to a risky portfolio.

That’s the dilemma when you’re considering buying British-American tobacco (NYSE: BTI) and the high dividend yield of 8.4%. Here’s what you need to know about this stock before adding it to your dividend portfolio.

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If you’re looking at British American Tobacco, chances are you’ve come across this stock because of its high yield of 8.4%. On an absolute level, that’s a pretty big number, but it becomes even more impressive when you compare it to other returns. For example the S&P500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) has a paltry yield of 1.2% and uses the average stock of consumer goods Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEMKT: XLP) as a proxy, has a return of 2.6%.

Image source: Getty Images.

From this perspective, British American Tobacco seems like a stock that could give you a huge income stream. But the big question is: can you actually rely on that income stream for the rest of your life?

The yield alone is impressive, but you just can’t tell. You need to dig deeper into the company’s business to assess whether it can continue to pay you that big dividend year in and year out. This is where the problems start for British American Tobacco and why the dividend yield is so high.

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British American Tobacco is a tobacco company. The main activity is the sale of cigarettes. Cigarette smoking has fallen out of fashion around the world as the health risks it poses have led consumers to avoid the habit and governments have made efforts to discourage consumers from smoking (with actions such as high tax rates and legally required warnings on packaging). The high yield offered by British American Tobacco is a sign that Wall Street is concerned that the dividend may not be sustainable in the long term.

Right now, British American Tobacco is hedging its dividend (if you take out one-off costs in 2023), so there’s probably very little risk of a dividend cut in the near term. The nature of cigarettes is such that customers are generally quite loyal, which has allowed the company to raise prices regularly. This helped offset the negative impact of declining volumes. But you can’t ignore the volume drops.

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