SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $29.50.

SMBK has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Hovde Group raised their price objective on shares of SmartFinancial from $28.00 to $32.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Piper Sandler cut SmartFinancial from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $26.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Raymond James raised their price objective on SmartFinancial from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $27.00 target price on shares of SmartFinancial in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd.

Institutional Trading of SmartFinancial

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in shares of SmartFinancial by 429.0% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 23,688 shares of the bank’s stock worth $499,000 after buying an additional 19,210 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in SmartFinancial by 7.9% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 59,437 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,252,000 after purchasing an additional 4,375 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 23.7% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 130,361 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,747,000 after purchasing an additional 24,979 shares in the last quarter. Foundry Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of SmartFinancial by 41.7% in the first quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 150,870 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,179,000 after purchasing an additional 44,407 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 2.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 789,233 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $16,629,000 after purchasing an additional 19,490 shares in the last quarter. 58.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

SmartFinancial Price Performance

Shares of SmartFinancial stock opened at $35.93 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $31.11 and a 200 day moving average of $27.03. SmartFinancial has a 52 week low of $19.00 and a 52 week high of $37.72. The company has a market cap of $608.29 million, a PE ratio of 18.52 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $73.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $42.32 million. SmartFinancial had a net margin of 11.88% and a return on equity of 6.81%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.43 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that SmartFinancial will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current year.

SmartFinancial Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. SmartFinancial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.49%.

SmartFinancial Company Profile

SmartFinancial, Inc operates as the bank holding company for SmartBank that provides various financial services to individuals and corporate customers in Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida. It operates through Commercial Real Estate, Consumer Real Estate, Construction and Land Development, Commercial and Industrial, Leases, and Consumer and Other segments.