Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Acquires 35,054 Shares of SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) by 5.3% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 699,794 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 35,054 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in SmartFinancial were worth $16,563,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of SmartFinancial in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $271,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in SmartFinancial by 429.0% during the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 23,688 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $499,000 after buying an additional 19,210 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in SmartFinancial by 1.5% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 24,147 shares of the bank’s stock worth $572,000 after buying an additional 361 shares during the last quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC boosted its stake in SmartFinancial by 1.5% during the first quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC now owns 33,927 shares of the bank’s stock worth $715,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in SmartFinancial by 22.0% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 30,500 shares of the bank’s stock worth $722,000 after buying an additional 5,500 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.78% of the company’s stock.

SmartFinancial Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of SMBK opened at $28.54 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $486.98 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.29 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a 50-day moving average of $28.34 and a 200 day moving average of $24.48. SmartFinancial, Inc. has a 1-year low of $19.00 and a 1-year high of $30.21.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $68.89 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.32 million. SmartFinancial had a return on equity of 6.55% and a net margin of 9.93%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.52 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that SmartFinancial, Inc. will post 1.99 EPS for the current year.

SmartFinancial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.12%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. SmartFinancial’s payout ratio is 20.51%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on SMBK. Piper Sandler lowered shares of SmartFinancial from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $26.00 to $28.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Hovde Group raised their price objective on shares of SmartFinancial from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $27.00 target price on shares of SmartFinancial in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Four equities 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, SmartFinancial has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $27.00.

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.