Turning Point Brands (NYSE:TPB) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Turning Point Brands (NYSE:TPB) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Saturday.

Separately, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Turning Point Brands from $65.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $76.67.

Turning Point Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:TPB opened at $78.30 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a current ratio of 4.42. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $74.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $66.55. Turning Point Brands has a fifty-two week low of $34.78 and a fifty-two week high of $81.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.34 and a beta of 0.75.

Turning Point Brands (NYSE:TPB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.16. Turning Point Brands had a net margin of 10.19% and a return on equity of 27.70%. The business had revenue of $106.44 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $95.75 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. Turning Point Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 28.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Turning Point Brands will post 2.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Turning Point Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 20th were issued a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 20th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.38%. Turning Point Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.16%.

Insider Transactions at Turning Point Brands

In other news, CEO Graham Purdy sold 21,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.89, for a total value of $1,602,646.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 227,466 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,034,928.74. This trade represents a 8.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Brian Wigginton sold 10,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.67, for a total transaction of $817,236.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 10,171 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $769,639.57. This trade represents a 51.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 115,300 shares of company stock worth $8,666,867. 6.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TPB. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Turning Point Brands by 90.7% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 328 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 156 shares during the period. Virtus Fund Advisers LLC purchased a new position in Turning Point Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $48,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Turning Point Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $96,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its stake in Turning Point Brands by 29.0% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,364 shares of the company’s stock worth $142,000 after buying an additional 532 shares during the period. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Turning Point Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $201,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.12% of the company’s stock.

About Turning Point Brands

Turning Point Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, markets, and distributes branded consumer products. The company operates through three segments: Zig-Zag Products, Stoker’s Products, and Creative Distribution Solutions. Zig-Zag Products segment markets and distributes rolling papers, tubes, finished cigars, make-your-own cigar wraps, and related products, as well as lighters and other accessories under the Zig-Zag brand.