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

Shares of SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $29.50.

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on SMBK shares. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $27.00 price target on shares of SmartFinancial in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Hovde Group raised their target price on SmartFinancial from $28.00 to $32.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Piper Sandler downgraded SmartFinancial from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $26.00 to $28.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Raymond James upped their price objective on SmartFinancial from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd.

Institutional Trading of SmartFinancial

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SMBK. Huntington National Bank lifted its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 5,269.2% during the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,396 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 1,370 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in SmartFinancial during the third quarter valued at $161,000. CAP Partners LLC purchased a new position in SmartFinancial during the third quarter valued at $230,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of SmartFinancial in the first quarter valued at about $271,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of SmartFinancial during the third quarter worth about $334,000. 58.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

SmartFinancial Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SMBK opened at $36.14 on Friday. SmartFinancial has a 52 week low of $19.00 and a 52 week high of $37.72. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $30.36 and its 200 day moving average price is $26.53. 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 firm has a market cap of $611.49 million, a P/E ratio of 18.63 and a beta of 0.67.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $73.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $42.32 million. SmartFinancial had a net margin of 11.88% and a return on equity of 6.90%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.43 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that SmartFinancial will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current year.

SmartFinancial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.89%. SmartFinancial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.