DS Smith (LON:SMDS) Reaches New 12-Month High at $428.41

DS Smith Plc (LON:SMDS) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as GBX 428.41 ($5.42) and last traded at GBX 428.20 ($5.42), with a volume of 9100294 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at GBX 422 ($5.34).

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on SMDS. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 400 ($5.06) target price on shares of DS Smith in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Numis Securities cut shares of DS Smith to a “hold” rating and set a GBX 415 ($5.25) price target for the company. in a report on Friday, April 19th.

DS Smith Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 72.82, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The firm has a market capitalization of £5.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 1,287.88, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s fifty day moving average is GBX 371.54 and its 200 day moving average is GBX 344.35.

DS Smith Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 5th will be paid a GBX 12 ($0.15) dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 5th. This is a boost from DS Smith’s previous dividend of $6.00. This represents a yield of 3.41%. DS Smith’s payout ratio is 5,454.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling at DS Smith

In other DS Smith news, insider Richard Pike sold 42,959 shares of DS Smith stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 358 ($4.53), for a total value of £153,793.22 ($194,527.22). Corporate insiders own 3.38% of the company’s stock.

About DS Smith

DS Smith Plc provides packaging solutions, paper products, and recycling services worldwide. The company offers transit and transport, consumer, retail and shelf ready, heavy duty, fiber base pallets, automotive standard, multi-material, dangerous goods, and e-commerce packaging, as well as packaging for food and drinks, health and beauty, apparel and footwear, home and DIY, and consumer electronics.