Smiths News (LON:SNWS) Shares Down 9.5% – What’s Next?

Shares of 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 were traded during 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).

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued 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 £145.10 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 680.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of GBX 63.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of GBX 59.84.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a yield of 9.47%. This is a positive change from Smiths News’s previous dividend of $1.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 9th. Smiths News’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5,555.56%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Smiths News

In other news, insider Deborah Rabey purchased 20,663 shares of Smiths News 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, for a total transaction of £13,017.69 ($16,017.83). Also, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 1,183,423 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.75), for a total transaction of £721,888.03 ($888,258.93). Insiders sold 1,993,578 shares of company stock valued at $121,608,258 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

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.