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

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS) fell 9.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock 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).

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 report on Tuesday, November 5th.

Smiths News Trading Down 9.5 %

The firm has a market cap of £145.10 million, a P/E ratio of 680.00, a PEG ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s 50-day moving average is GBX 62.96 and its two-hundred 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be issued a GBX 5.40 ($0.07) dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 9.47%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 9th. This is a positive change from Smiths News’s previous dividend of $1.75. Smiths News’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5,555.56%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Deborah Rabey bought 20,663 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were purchased 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 1,183,423 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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). Over the last 90 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.