Smiths News (LON:SNWS) Trading Down 9.5% – Here’s What Happened

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS) was down 9.5% on Thursday . The company traded as low as GBX 59.40 ($0.73) and last traded at GBX 61.20 ($0.75). Approximately 1,615,870 shares were traded 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).

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Smiths News Stock Performance

The company’s 50 day moving average price is GBX 63.07 and its 200 day moving average price is GBX 59.83. The company has a market cap 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.

Smiths News Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Deborah Rabey acquired 20,663 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was purchased at an average price of GBX 63 ($0.77) per share, for a total transaction of £13,017.69 ($15,894.62). Also, insider Jonathan Bunting sold 490,569 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 61 ($0.74), for a total transaction of £299,247.09 ($365,381.06). Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,993,578 shares of company stock valued at $121,608,258. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by 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.