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

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS)’s stock price traded down 9.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as GBX 59.40 ($0.73) and last traded at GBX 61.20 ($0.76). 1,615,870 shares were traded 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 ($0.84).

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Smiths News Price Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average of GBX 62.96 and a 200 day moving average of GBX 59.83. The firm has a market capitalization of £145.10 million, a P/E ratio of 680.00, a PEG ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 positive change from Smiths News’s previous dividend of $1.75. This represents a yield of 9.47%. Smiths News’s payout ratio is 5,555.56%.

Insider Activity at Smiths News

In related news, insider Paul Baker sold 319,586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were 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 acquired 20,663 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were bought at an average cost of GBX 63 ($0.78) per share, with a total value of £13,017.69 ($16,091.09). Insiders have sold 1,993,578 shares of company stock worth $121,608,258 in the last quarter. 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.