Turning Point Brands (NYSE:TPB) Lowered to Strong Sell Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Turning Point Brands (NYSE:TPB) from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research note published on Saturday morning.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Needham & Company LLC raised Turning Point Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $125.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Zacks Research lowered Turning Point Brands from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Turning Point Brands from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $118.75.

Turning Point Brands Stock Down 1.7%

TPB opened at $89.70 on Friday. Turning Point Brands has a one year low of $65.80 and a one year high of $146.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 4.12 and a current ratio of 5.87. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $83.95 and its 200-day moving average is $101.51. The company has a market capitalization of $1.74 billion, a PE ratio of 30.51 and a beta of 0.93.

Turning Point Brands (NYSE:TPB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $124.28 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $115.67 million. Turning Point Brands had a return on equity of 16.54% and a net margin of 11.53%.Turning Point Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.91 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Turning Point Brands will post 2.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Turning Point Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 19th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 18th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Turning Point Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.88%.

Insider Transactions at Turning Point Brands

In other Turning Point Brands news, CFO Andrew Flynn sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.57, for a total transaction of $195,140.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,443 shares in the company, valued at approximately $921,353.51. This trade represents a 17.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Brian Wigginton sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.67, for a total value of $366,680.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 9,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $846,114.10. The trade was a 30.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 5.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH grew its stake in Turning Point Brands by 72.1% in the third quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 58,377 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,771,000 after purchasing an additional 24,460 shares in the last quarter. GatePass Capital LLC purchased a new position in Turning Point Brands in the third quarter valued at about $1,119,000. Vest Financial LLC purchased a new position in Turning Point Brands in the third quarter valued at about $1,419,000. HighTower Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Turning Point Brands in the third quarter valued at about $3,735,000. Finally, Copeland Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Turning Point Brands by 29,795.8% in the fourth quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 204,188 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,134,000 after purchasing an additional 203,505 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.12% of the company’s stock.

About Turning Point Brands

Turning Point Brands, Inc (NYSE: TPB) is a U.S.-based consumer products company focused on the manufacture, marketing and distribution of smokeless tobacco, vaping and cigar products. Headquartered in Old Hickory, Tennessee, the company serves retail outlets across all 50 states through a direct-store-delivery network and select third-party distributors. Turning Point Brands operates two reporting segments—Smokeless Products and Cigar—and leverages its logistics capabilities to offer a broad portfolio of brands and SKUs.

In its Smokeless Products segment, Turning Point Brands produces moist smokeless tobacco under leading brand names such as Grizzly, Kodiak and Stoker’s.