Smiths News (LON:SNWS) Trading Down 9.5% – Should You Sell?

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS)’s stock price dropped 9.5% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as GBX 59.40 ($0.73) and last traded at GBX 61.20 ($0.76). Approximately 1,615,870 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 37% from the average daily volume of 1,183,762 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 67.60 ($0.84).

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Smiths News Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of £145.10 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 680.00, a PEG ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is GBX 62.96 and its 200 day moving average price is GBX 59.83.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. This represents a yield of 9.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 9th. This is an increase from Smiths News’s previous dividend of $1.75. Smiths News’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5,555.56%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 acquired at an average price of GBX 63 ($0.78) per share, with a total value of £13,017.69 ($16,091.09). Also, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 490,569 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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). Insiders sold 1,993,578 shares of company stock worth $121,608,258 over the last ninety days. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.