Smiths News (LON:SNWS) Shares Down 9.5% – Should You Sell?

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS) traded down 9.5% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as GBX 59.40 ($0.73) and last traded at GBX 61.20 ($0.76). 1,615,870 shares changed hands 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).

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Smiths News Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of £145.10 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 680.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83. The firm’s 50 day moving average is GBX 62.96 and its 200-day moving average is GBX 59.83.

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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 9th. This represents a yield of 9.47%. This is a boost from Smiths News’s previous dividend of $1.75. Smiths News’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5,555.56%.

Insider Transactions at Smiths News

In other news, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 1,183,423 shares of the firm’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). Also, insider Deborah Rabey bought 20,663 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The shares were bought at an average price of GBX 63 ($0.78) per share, with a total value of £13,017.69 ($16,091.09). Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,993,578 shares of company stock worth $121,608,258. 13.12% of the stock is 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.