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

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS) traded down 9.5% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as GBX 59.40 ($0.73) and last traded at GBX 61.20 ($0.75). 1,615,870 shares traded hands 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 ($1.16) target price on shares of Smiths News in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th.

Smiths News Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of £138.46 million, a PE ratio of 648.89, a PEG ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of GBX 63.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 9th. This represents a yield of 9.47%. This is an increase from Smiths News’s previous dividend of $1.75. Smiths News’s payout ratio is 5,555.56%.

Insider Activity at Smiths News

In related news, insider Deborah Rabey purchased 20,663 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were bought at an average price of GBX 63 ($0.77) per share, for a total transaction of £13,017.69 ($15,894.62). Also, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 1,183,423 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.74), for a total transaction of £721,888.03 ($881,426.17). In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,993,578 shares of company stock valued at $121,608,258. 13.12% of the stock is 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.