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

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS)’s stock price fell 11% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as GBX 59.40 ($0.73) and last traded at GBX 60.17 ($0.74). 3,049,240 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 114% from the average session volume of 1,422,657 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 67.60 ($0.84).

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Smiths News Trading Down 11.0 %

The company has a market cap of £142.65 million, a PE ratio of 668.53, a PEG ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of GBX 62.96 and a 200 day moving average price of GBX 59.83.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 1,183,423 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.75), for a total transaction of £721,888.03 ($892,321.42). Also, insider Deborah Rabey acquired 20,663 shares of Smiths News 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). Insiders sold a total of 1,993,578 shares of company stock worth $121,608,258 in the last three months. 13.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.