Smiths News (LON:SNWS) Stock Price Down 9.5% – Here’s What Happened

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS) dropped 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). Approximately 1,615,870 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 37% from the average daily volume of 1,183,762 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 67.60 ($0.83).

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Smiths News Trading Down 9.5 %

The company has a market capitalization of £145.10 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 680.00, a PEG ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is GBX 63.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is GBX 59.84.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Smiths News

In related news, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 1,183,423 shares of Smiths News stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.75), for a total transaction of £721,888.03 ($888,258.93). Also, insider Deborah Rabey purchased 20,663 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was bought at an average cost of GBX 63 ($0.78) per share, with a total value of £13,017.69 ($16,017.83). Insiders have sold a total of 1,993,578 shares of company stock valued at $121,608,258 in the last ninety days. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.