WH Smith PLC

BATS-CHIXE:SMWHL Stock Report

Market Cap: UK£650.2m

WH Smith Valuation

Is SMWHL undervalued compared to its fair value, analyst forecasts and its price relative to the market?

Valuation Score

2/6

Valuation Score 2/6

  • Below Future Cash Flow Value

  • Significantly Below Future Cash Flow Value

  • Price-To-Sales vs Peers

  • Price-To-Sales vs Industry

  • Price-To-Sales vs Fair Ratio

  • Analyst Forecast

Share Price vs Fair Value

What is the Fair Price of SMWHL when looking at its future cash flows? For this estimate we use a Discounted Cash Flow model.

Ultimate guide to DCF valuation for stock investing

Learn how to determine fair value like the best investors in the world.

Below Future Cash Flow Value: SMWHL (£4.3) is trading above our estimate of future cash flow value (£2.01)

Significantly Below Future Cash Flow Value: SMWHL is trading above our estimate of future cash flow value.

Key Valuation Metric

Which metric is best to use when looking at relative valuation for SMWHL?

Key metric: As SMWHL is unprofitable we use its Price-To-Sales Ratio for relative valuation analysis.

The above table shows the Price to Sales ratio for SMWHL. This is calculated by dividing SMWHL's market cap by their current revenue.
What is SMWHL's PS Ratio?
PS Ratio0.4x
SalesUK£1.59b
Market CapUK£650.16m

Price to Sales Ratio vs Peers

How does SMWHL's PS Ratio compare to its peers?

The above table shows the PS ratio for SMWHL vs its peers. Here we also display the market cap and forecasted growth for additional consideration.
CompanyForward PSEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
Peer Average1x
MOON Moonpig Group
2.1x5.82%UK£793.3m
PETS Pets at Home Group
0.6x2.18%UK£879.8m
WOSG Watches of Switzerland Group
0.9x5.79%UK£1.7b
CARD Card Factory
0.4x3.87%UK£246.3m
SMWHL WH Smith
0.4x3.79%UK£650.2m

Price-To-Sales vs Peers: SMWHL is good value based on its Price-To-Sales Ratio (0.4x) compared to the peer average (1x).

Historical Price to Sales Ratio

Historical Price to Sales Ratio compares a stock's price to its sales over time. Higher ratios indicate that investors are willing to pay more for the stock.

Fetching historical data

Price to Sales Ratio vs Industry

How does SMWHL's PS Ratio compare vs other companies in the GB Specialty Retail Industry?

9 CompaniesPrice / SalesEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
VTU Vertu Motors
0.05x2.55%US$323.76m
MOTR Motorpoint Group
0.08x6.28%US$129.84m
CFYN Caffyns
0.04xn/aUS$16.09m
MMAG musicMagpie
0.07xn/aUS$11.18m
No. of Companies9PS00.40.81.21.62+
9 CompaniesEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
No more companies

Price-To-Sales vs Industry: SMWHL is expensive based on its Price-To-Sales Ratio (0.4x) compared to the UK Specialty Retail industry average (0.3x).

Price to Sales Ratio vs Fair Ratio

What is SMWHL's PS Ratio compared to its Fair PS Ratio? This is the expected PS Ratio taking into account the company's forecast earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors.

SMWHL PS Ratio vs Fair Ratio.
Fair Ratio
Current PS Ratio0.4x
Fair PS Ratio0.6x

Price-To-Sales vs Fair Ratio: SMWHL is good value based on its Price-To-Sales Ratio (0.4x) compared to the estimated Fair Price-To-Sales Ratio (0.6x).

Analyst Price Targets

What is the analyst 12-month forecast and do we have any statistical confidence in the consensus price target?

The above table shows the analyst SMWHL forecast and predictions for the stock price in 12 month’s time.
DateShare PriceAverage 1Y Price TargetDispersionHighLow1Y Actual priceAnalysts
CurrentUK£4.30
UK£4.70
+9.18%
12.50%UK£5.75UK£3.70n/a12
Jul ’27UK£4.01
UK£4.70
+17.22%
12.50%UK£5.75UK£3.70n/a12
Jun ’27UK£4.98
UK£6.18
+23.90%
9.06%UK£7.00UK£5.20n/a12
May ’27UK£5.17
UK£6.26
+21.15%
6.68%UK£7.00UK£5.50n/a11
Apr ’27UK£5.81
UK£7.02
+20.86%
9.93%UK£8.20UK£5.75n/a12
Mar ’27UK£6.86
UK£7.08
+3.26%
9.81%UK£8.20UK£6.00n/a11
Feb ’27UK£6.79
UK£7.08
+4.40%
9.81%UK£8.20UK£6.00n/a11
Jan ’27UK£6.42
UK£7.73
+20.42%
25.69%UK£13.50UK£6.50n/a10
Dec ’26UK£6.78
UK£7.78
+14.79%
24.00%UK£13.50UK£6.50n/a11
Nov ’26UK£6.76
UK£8.02
+18.63%
23.26%UK£13.50UK£6.75n/a11
Oct ’26UK£6.77
UK£8.56
+26.47%
27.19%UK£13.50UK£6.90n/a11
Sep ’26UK£6.85
UK£10.27
+50.00%
34.89%UK£16.00UK£7.00n/a10
Aug ’26UK£10.42
UK£12.97
+24.48%
14.91%UK£16.00UK£10.00n/a12
Jul ’26UK£11.02
UK£13.01
+18.04%
14.93%UK£16.00UK£10.00UK£4.0112
Jun ’26UK£10.53
UK£13.52
+28.36%
16.51%UK£16.00UK£10.00UK£4.9812
May ’26UK£9.26
UK£13.96
+50.73%
15.46%UK£17.00UK£10.00UK£5.1713
Apr ’26UK£10.10
UK£15.28
+51.33%
8.55%UK£17.00UK£12.90UK£5.8113
Mar ’26UK£11.61
UK£15.28
+31.65%
8.93%UK£17.00UK£12.90UK£6.8613
Feb ’26UK£13.11
UK£15.26
+16.41%
9.22%UK£17.00UK£12.60UK£6.7913
Jan ’26UK£11.88
UK£15.38
+29.44%
8.46%UK£17.00UK£12.60UK£6.4213
Dec ’25UK£12.35
UK£15.38
+24.51%
8.46%UK£17.00UK£12.60UK£6.7813
Nov ’25UK£13.18
UK£15.86
+20.31%
10.77%UK£20.00UK£13.10UK£6.7613
Oct ’25UK£14.31
UK£15.86
+10.84%
11.20%UK£20.00UK£13.10UK£6.7712
Sep ’25UK£12.85
UK£15.65
+21.78%
10.97%UK£20.00UK£13.10UK£6.8513
Aug ’25UK£13.02
UK£15.65
+20.19%
10.97%UK£20.00UK£13.10UK£10.4213
Jul ’25UK£11.43
UK£15.73
+37.61%
11.22%UK£20.00UK£13.10UK£11.0212
UK£4.68
Fair Value
8.1% undervalued intrinsic discount
12
Number of Analysts

Analyst Forecast: Target price is less than 20% higher than the current share price.

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Company Analysis and Financial Data Status

DataLast Updated (UTC time)
Company Analysis2026/07/27 14:17
End of Day Share Price 2026/07/27 00:00
Earnings2026/02/28
Annual Earnings2025/08/31

Data Sources

The data used in our company analysis is from S&P Global Market Intelligence LLC. The following data is used in our analysis model to generate this report. Data is normalised which can introduce a delay from the source being available.

PackageDataTimeframeExample US Source *
Company Financials10 years
  • Income statement
  • Cash flow statement
  • Balance sheet
Analyst Consensus Estimates+3 years
  • Forecast financials
  • Analyst price targets
Market Prices30 years
  • Stock prices
  • Dividends, Splits and Actions
Ownership10 years
  • Top shareholders
  • Insider trading
Management10 years
  • Leadership team
  • Board of directors
Key Developments10 years
  • Company announcements

* Example for US securities, for non-US equivalent regulatory forms and sources are used.

Unless specified all financial data is based on a yearly period but updated quarterly. This is known as Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) or Last Twelve Month (LTM) Data. Learn more.

Analysis Model and Snowflake

Details of the analysis model used to generate this report is available on our Github page, we also have guides on how to use our reports and tutorials on Youtube.

Learn about the world class team who designed and built the Simply Wall St analysis model.

Industry and Sector Metrics

Our industry and section metrics are calculated every 6 hours by Simply Wall St, details of our process are available on Github.

Analyst Sources

WH Smith PLC is covered by 26 analysts. 11 of those analysts submitted the estimates of revenue or earnings used as inputs to our report. Analysts submissions are updated throughout the day.

AnalystInstitution
Richard TaylorBarclays
Jack CummingsBerenberg
Luka TrnovsekBerenberg