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

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS) shares traded down 9.5% during trading on Friday . The stock 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 restated a “buy” rating and set a GBX 95 ($1.17) price target on shares of Smiths News in a report on Tuesday, November 5th.

Smiths News Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of £143.20 million, a PE ratio of 671.11, a P/E/G ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83. The firm has a 50 day moving average of GBX 63.04 and a 200-day moving average of GBX 59.84.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paul Baker sold 319,586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.75), for a total transaction of £194,947.46 ($239,876.29). Also, insider Deborah Rabey bought 20,663 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 ($16,017.83). Insiders sold a total of 1,993,578 shares of company stock worth $121,608,258 in the last quarter. 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.