Smiths News (LON:SNWS) Shares Down 9.5% – What’s Next?

Shares of Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS) traded down 9.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as GBX 59.40 ($0.73) and last traded at GBX 61.20 ($0.75). 1,615,870 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 37% from the average session volume of 1,183,762 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 67.60 ($0.83).

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 95 ($1.16) price objective on shares of Smiths News in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th.

Smiths News Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of £138.46 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 648.89, a P/E/G ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a 50 day moving average price of GBX 63.07 and a 200 day moving average price of GBX 59.83.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be paid a dividend of GBX 5.40 ($0.07) per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 9th. This represents a yield of 9.47%. This is an increase from Smiths News’s previous dividend of $1.75. Smiths News’s payout ratio is 5,555.56%.

Insider Activity at Smiths News

In other news, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 490,569 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.74), for a total transaction of £299,247.09 ($365,381.06). Also, insider Deborah Rabey bought 20,663 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was purchased at an average price of GBX 63 ($0.77) per share, for a total transaction of £13,017.69 ($15,894.62). Insiders have sold a total of 1,993,578 shares of company stock valued at $121,608,258 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Smiths News Company Profile

In 1792 we started delivering the nation’s newspapers. Today, we’re proud to be the UK’s largest wholesaler of newspapers and magazines, serving 24,000 retailers from superstores to corner shops.

Service and efficiency put us at the forefront of our industry and with 55% market share we are the leading player in one of the world’s fastest-moving supply chains.