Smiths News (LON:SNWS) Stock Price Down 11% – Should You Sell?

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS)’s share price 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 traded hands during mid-day 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) target price on shares of Smiths News in a report on Tuesday, November 5th.

Smiths News Trading Down 11.0 %

The firm has a market cap of £142.65 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 668.53, a P/E/G ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is GBX 62.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is GBX 59.83.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Smiths News

In related news, insider Deborah Rabey bought 20,663 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The shares were bought at an average price of GBX 63 ($0.78) per share, for a total transaction of £13,017.69 ($16,091.09). Also, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 490,569 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.75), for a total transaction of £299,247.09 ($369,897.52). Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,993,578 shares of company stock valued at $121,608,258. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.