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

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS) shares fell 9.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as GBX 59.40 ($0.73) and last traded at GBX 61.20 ($0.75). 1,615,870 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 37% from the average session volume of 1,183,762 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 67.60 ($0.83).

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Smiths News Trading Down 4.6 %

The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of GBX 63.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of GBX 59.83. The company has a market capitalization of £138.46 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 648.89, a P/E/G ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Smiths News

In related news, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 1,183,423 shares of Smiths News stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.74), for a total value of £721,888.03 ($881,426.17). Also, insider Paul Baker sold 319,586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.74), for a total value of £194,947.46 ($238,031.09). Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,993,578 shares of company stock worth $121,608,258. 13.12% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.