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

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS)’s share price fell 9.5% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as GBX 59.40 ($0.73) and last traded at GBX 61.20 ($0.75). 1,615,870 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 37% from the average session volume of 1,183,762 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 67.60 ($0.83).

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Smiths News Stock Performance

The business has a 50-day simple moving average of GBX 62.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of GBX 59.83. The firm has a market cap of £145.10 million, a P/E ratio of 680.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83.

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 issued a dividend of GBX 5.40 ($0.07) per share. This represents a dividend 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 currently 5,555.56%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 490,569 shares of the 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 value of £299,247.09 ($368,213.47). Also, insider Deborah Rabey bought 20,663 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was purchased at an average price of GBX 63 ($0.78) per share, with a total value of £13,017.69 ($16,017.83). Insiders sold 1,993,578 shares of company stock valued at $121,608,258 over the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is owned by company 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.