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

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Smiths News Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of £138.46 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 648.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is GBX 63.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is GBX 59.83.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Paul Baker sold 319,586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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). Also, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 1,183,423 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.74), for a total transaction of £721,888.03 ($881,426.17). Insiders have sold a total of 1,993,578 shares of company stock valued at $121,608,258 in the last three months. Company 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.