Smiths News (LON:SNWS) Trading Down 11% – Here’s Why

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS) traded down 11% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as GBX 59.40 ($0.73) and last traded at GBX 60.17 ($0.73). 3,049,240 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 114% from the average session volume of 1,422,657 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 67.60 ($0.83).

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Smiths News Stock Down 4.6 %

The firm has a fifty day moving average of GBX 63.07 and a 200-day moving average of GBX 59.83. The firm has a market cap of £138.46 million, a P/E ratio of 648.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 490,569 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.74), for a total value of £299,247.09 ($365,381.06). Also, insider Deborah Rabey bought 20,663 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were purchased at an average price of GBX 63 ($0.77) per share, for a total transaction of £13,017.69 ($15,894.62). Insiders sold a total of 1,993,578 shares of company stock valued at $121,608,258 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

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.