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

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS)’s share price was 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). Approximately 1,615,870 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 37% from the average daily volume of 1,183,762 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 67.60 ($0.84).

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Smiths News Stock Performance

The business’s 50-day simple moving average is GBX 62.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is GBX 59.83. The firm has a market cap of £145.10 million, a P/E ratio of 680.00, a P/E/G ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be given a dividend of GBX 5.40 ($0.07) per share. This is an increase 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 payout ratio is presently 5,555.56%.

Insider Activity at Smiths News

In related news, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 490,569 shares of the company’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). Also, insider Deborah Rabey acquired 20,663 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were bought at an average cost of GBX 63 ($0.78) per share, with a total value of £13,017.69 ($16,091.09). Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,993,578 shares of company stock worth $121,608,258. Corporate 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.