Companies and Brands

Major Reynolds Holder Dumps Some Tobacco Shares

Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) saw its gains peter out and then melt away today. The news is that shareholder Brown & Williamson Holdings Inc. dumped more than $50 million worth of its equity holdings in the domestic tobacco giant.…

By Jon C. Ogg
Published August 21, 2012, 4:44pm ET · 1 min read

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Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) saw its gains peter out and then melt away today. The news is that shareholder Brown & Williamson Holdings Inc. dumped more than $50 million worth of its equity holdings in the domestic tobacco giant. The Form 4 filings showed that some 630,660 shares were sold and then another filing showed that some 476,476 shares were sold. Before worrying that the tobacco insider is getting too nervous, keep in mind that the second Form 4 filing showed that some 235,859,633 shares of common stock are still beneficially held by Brown & Williamson and the filing also reminds that British American Tobacco PLC (NYSEMKT: BTI) is “the beneficial owner of such shares by virtue of its indirect ownership of all of the equity and voting power of B&W.”

Reynolds shares close down 1% at $45.80 on the day after trading as high as $46.49 and against a 52-week trading range of $35.65 to $46.93. It currently out-yields Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) but that is because we are awaiting an Altria dividend hike any day now (one of the 12 big dividends left between now and the end of the year) and Reynolds saw its dividend hiked at the last payout in June.

JON C. OGG

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Jon C. Ogg

Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. www.247wallst.com.

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