Smiths News (LON:SNWS) Trading Down 9.5% – Time to Sell?

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 ($0.76). 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 ($0.84).

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Smiths News Stock Down 9.5 %

The firm has a market capitalization of £145.10 million, a PE ratio of 680.00, a P/E/G ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of GBX 62.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of GBX 59.83.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 9th will be issued a GBX 5.40 ($0.07) dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 9th. This represents a yield of 9.47%. This is a positive change from Smiths News’s previous dividend of $1.75. Smiths News’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5,555.56%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Smiths News

In other news, insider Paul Baker sold 319,586 shares of Smiths News stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.75), for a total value of £194,947.46 ($240,973.37). Also, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 1,183,423 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.75), for a total value of £721,888.03 ($892,321.42). Insiders have sold a total of 1,993,578 shares of company stock valued at $121,608,258 over the last three months. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by 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.