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

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS) shares dropped 9.5% on Thursday . The stock traded as low as GBX 59.40 ($0.73) and last traded at GBX 61.20 ($0.75). Approximately 1,615,870 shares changed 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 Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a GBX 95 ($1.16) target price on shares of Smiths News in a report on Tuesday, November 5th.

Smiths News Price Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average price of GBX 63.07 and a 200 day moving average price of GBX 59.83. The company has a market capitalization of £138.46 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 648.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Smiths News

In related news, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 490,569 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.74), for a total value of £299,247.09 ($365,381.06). Also, insider Deborah Rabey acquired 20,663 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were purchased at an average price of GBX 63 ($0.77) per share, for a total transaction of £13,017.69 ($15,894.62). Insiders sold a total of 1,993,578 shares of company stock valued at $121,608,258 over the last ninety days. 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.