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

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Smiths News Stock Down 4.6 %

The stock has a market capitalization of £138.46 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 648.89, a P/E/G ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.83. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of GBX 63.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of GBX 59.82.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

The business 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 represents a dividend yield of 9.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 9th. This is an increase from Smiths News’s previous dividend of $1.75. Smiths News’s dividend payout ratio is 5,555.56%.

Insider Activity

In other Smiths News news, insider Paul Baker sold 319,586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.74), for a total transaction of £194,947.46 ($238,031.09). Also, insider Deborah Rabey bought 20,663 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of GBX 63 ($0.77) per share, for a total transaction of £13,017.69 ($15,894.62). In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,993,578 shares of company stock worth $121,608,258. 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.