Ritholtz Wealth Management Reduces Position in Turning Point Brands, Inc. $TPB

Ritholtz Wealth Management lowered its holdings in shares of Turning Point Brands, Inc. (NYSE:TPB) by 32.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,875 shares of the company’s stock after selling 8,078 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Turning Point Brands were worth $1,465,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Turning Point Brands by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,451,394 shares of the company’s stock worth $157,331,000 after purchasing an additional 61,311 shares in the last quarter. Divisadero Street Capital Management LP boosted its position in Turning Point Brands by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Divisadero Street Capital Management LP now owns 974,066 shares of the company’s stock valued at $96,296,000 after acquiring an additional 30,282 shares in the last quarter. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC boosted its position in Turning Point Brands by 28.9% during the fourth quarter. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC now owns 869,747 shares of the company’s stock valued at $94,281,000 after purchasing an additional 194,938 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in Turning Point Brands by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 847,050 shares of the company’s stock valued at $91,820,000 after purchasing an additional 38,437 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Turning Point Brands by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 541,667 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,728,000 after purchasing an additional 28,463 shares during the last quarter. 96.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on TPB. Zacks Research lowered shares of Turning Point Brands from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Turning Point Brands from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 6th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Turning Point Brands from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upgraded shares of Turning Point Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $125.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $118.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at Turning Point Brands

In other news, CAO Brian Wigginton sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.67, for a total transaction of $366,680.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 9,230 shares in the company, valued at $846,114.10. This trade represents a 30.23% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 5.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Turning Point Brands Stock Performance

NYSE TPB opened at $87.10 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $84.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $98.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 4.05 and a current ratio of 5.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.63 and a beta of 0.92. Turning Point Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $65.80 and a fifty-two week high of $146.90.

Turning Point Brands (NYSE:TPB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.08. Turning Point Brands had a return on equity of 16.54% and a net margin of 11.53%.The company had revenue of $124.28 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $115.67 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.91 earnings per share. Turning Point Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Turning Point Brands, Inc. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Turning Point Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 10th. Investors of record on Friday, June 19th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 is presently 10.88%.

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.