SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) Receives $29.50 Average Price Target from Analysts

Shares of SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the five analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $29.50.

A number of research analysts have recently commented on SMBK shares. Raymond James upped their price target on 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 increased their target price on shares of SmartFinancial from $28.00 to $32.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Stephens downgraded shares of SmartFinancial from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday.

SmartFinancial Stock Performance

NASDAQ SMBK opened at $34.93 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $591.36 million, a PE ratio of 18.01 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.90. SmartFinancial has a 52-week low of $19.00 and a 52-week high of $37.72. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $33.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.63.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.05. SmartFinancial had a net margin of 11.88% and a return on equity of 6.81%. The company had revenue of $73.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $42.32 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that SmartFinancial will post 2.02 EPS for the current year.

SmartFinancial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. SmartFinancial’s payout ratio is 16.49%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SmartFinancial

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SMBK. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of SmartFinancial by 2.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 789,233 shares of the bank’s stock worth $16,629,000 after acquiring an additional 19,490 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in SmartFinancial by 5.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 699,794 shares of the bank’s stock worth $16,563,000 after purchasing an additional 35,054 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in SmartFinancial by 69.0% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 340,418 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,920,000 after purchasing an additional 139,009 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in SmartFinancial by 3.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 336,147 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $9,795,000 after buying an additional 10,623 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of SmartFinancial by 0.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 335,501 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $9,779,000 after buying an additional 1,307 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.78% of the company’s stock.

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.