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

Smiths News plc (LON:SNWS)’s stock price dropped 9.5% during trading on Friday . 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 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 restated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 95 ($1.16) price target on shares of Smiths News in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th.

Smiths News Trading Down 4.6 %

The stock’s 50-day moving average is GBX 63.07 and its 200-day moving average is GBX 59.82. 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 firm also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be paid a dividend of GBX 5.40 ($0.07) per share. This represents a yield of 9.47%. 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. Smiths News’s payout ratio is 5,555.56%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Smiths News

In other Smiths News news, insider Deborah Rabey acquired 20,663 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of GBX 63 ($0.77) per share, with a total value of £13,017.69 ($15,894.62). Also, 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 transaction of £299,247.09 ($365,381.06). In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,993,578 shares of company stock worth $121,608,258. 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.