Smiths News (LON:SNWS) Trading Down 11% – What’s Next?

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS) shares dropped 11% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as GBX 59.40 ($0.73) and last traded at GBX 60.17 ($0.74). Approximately 3,049,240 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 114% from the average daily volume of 1,422,657 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 67.60 ($0.84).

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Smiths News Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of £142.65 million, a P/E ratio of 668.53, a PEG ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83. The business has a fifty day moving average of GBX 62.96 and a 200-day 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be given a GBX 5.40 ($0.07) dividend. This represents a yield of 9.47%. This is an increase from Smiths News’s previous dividend of $1.75. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 9th. Smiths News’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5,555.56%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Deborah Rabey bought 20,663 shares of Smiths News stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was acquired at an average price of GBX 63 ($0.78) per share, with a total value of £13,017.69 ($16,091.09). Also, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 490,569 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.75), for a total transaction of £299,247.09 ($369,897.52). Insiders sold a total of 1,993,578 shares of company stock valued at $121,608,258 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

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.