Creative Planning Buys Shares of 13,519 SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK)

Creative Planning bought a new stake in shares of SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 13,519 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $394,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp boosted its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 5,760.9% in the second quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp now owns 66,990 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,586,000 after acquiring an additional 65,847 shares during the last quarter. Foundry Partners LLC boosted its position 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 acquiring an additional 44,407 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 320.7% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 54,574 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,289,000 after acquiring an additional 41,602 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 5.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 699,794 shares of the bank’s stock worth $16,563,000 after acquiring an additional 35,054 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in SmartFinancial by 16.9% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 183,751 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,349,000 after buying an additional 26,583 shares in the last quarter. 58.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $27.00 price target on shares of SmartFinancial in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of SmartFinancial from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Hovde Group lifted their price target on shares of SmartFinancial from $28.00 to $32.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler cut shares of SmartFinancial from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $26.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $29.50.

SmartFinancial Stock Performance

SMBK stock opened at $35.67 on Friday. SmartFinancial, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.00 and a fifty-two week high of $37.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a market capitalization of $603.54 million, a P/E ratio of 18.39 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.38.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $73.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $42.32 million. SmartFinancial had a return on equity of 6.90% and a net margin of 11.88%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.43 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that SmartFinancial, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SmartFinancial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.90%. SmartFinancial’s dividend payout ratio is 16.49%.

About SmartFinancial

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.