Smiths News (LON:SNWS) Trading Down 11% – Here’s Why

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS)’s stock price traded down 11% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as GBX 59.40 ($0.73) and last traded at GBX 60.17 ($0.73). 3,049,240 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 114% from the average session volume of 1,422,657 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 67.60 ($0.83).

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and set a GBX 95 ($1.16) price target on shares of Smiths News in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th.

Smiths News Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of £138.46 million, a PE ratio of 648.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is GBX 63.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is GBX 59.83.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 ($0.74), for a total transaction of £194,947.46 ($238,031.09). Also, insider Deborah Rabey bought 20,663 shares of Smiths News stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was purchased at an average cost 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 worth $121,608,258 in the last ninety days. 13.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.