Smiths News (LON:SNWS) Trading Down 11% – What’s Next?

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS) dropped 11% on Thursday . The stock traded as low as GBX 59.40 ($0.73) and last traded at GBX 60.17 ($0.74). Approximately 3,049,240 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 114% from the average daily volume of 1,422,657 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 67.60 ($0.84).

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a GBX 95 ($1.17) price target on shares of Smiths News in a report on Tuesday, November 5th.

Smiths News Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of £143.68 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 673.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of GBX 62.96 and a 200-day moving average price of GBX 59.83.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Paul Baker sold 319,586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.75), for a total value of £194,947.46 ($240,973.37). Also, insider Deborah Rabey purchased 20,663 shares of Smiths News stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of GBX 63 ($0.78) per share, with a total value of £13,017.69 ($16,091.09). Insiders sold a total of 1,993,578 shares of company stock valued at $121,608,258 over the last three months. Company insiders own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

About Smiths News

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.