Smiths News (LON:SNWS) Stock Price Down 11% – Time to Sell?

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS)’s share price traded down 11% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as GBX 59.40 ($0.73) and last traded at GBX 60.17 ($0.74). 3,049,240 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 114% from the average session volume of 1,422,657 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 67.60 ($0.84).

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Smiths News Trading Down 10.4 %

The firm’s 50 day moving average is GBX 62.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is GBX 59.83. The firm has a market cap of £143.68 million, a P/E ratio of 673.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 yield of 9.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 9th. Smiths News’s dividend payout ratio is 5,555.56%.

Insider Activity at Smiths News

In related news, insider Paul Baker sold 319,586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.75), for a total transaction of £194,947.46 ($240,973.37). Also, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 1,183,423 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sold 1,993,578 shares of company stock worth $121,608,258 in the last ninety days. 13.12% of the stock is 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.