SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) Receives “Strong-Buy” Rating from Raymond James

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK)‘s stock had its “strong-buy” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Raymond James in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $42.00 price objective on the bank’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $36.00. Raymond James’ target price indicates a potential upside of 21.74% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on SMBK. Stephens downgraded SmartFinancial from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Hovde Group boosted their price target on SmartFinancial from $28.00 to $32.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, SmartFinancial currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.70.

SmartFinancial Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SMBK opened at $34.50 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $33.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $30.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90. SmartFinancial has a 1-year low of $19.00 and a 1-year high of $37.72. The company has a market cap of $584.09 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.08 and a beta of 0.70.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.05. SmartFinancial had a return on equity of 7.33% and a net margin of 12.67%. The business had revenue of $73.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $42.32 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.43 EPS. Analysts forecast that SmartFinancial will post 2.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at SmartFinancial

In other news, Director John M. Presley sold 6,916 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.05, for a total transaction of $242,405.80. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 3,960 shares in the company, valued at approximately $138,798. This represents a 63.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 7,516 shares of company stock valued at $262,600. Insiders own 7.68% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SmartFinancial

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its stake in shares of SmartFinancial by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 24,147 shares of the bank’s stock worth $572,000 after acquiring an additional 361 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of SmartFinancial by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 14,925 shares of the bank’s stock worth $435,000 after acquiring an additional 967 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of SmartFinancial by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 335,501 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,779,000 after acquiring an additional 1,307 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 4.4% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 31,849 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $928,000 after purchasing an additional 1,349 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Huntington National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 5,269.2% in the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,396 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 1,370 shares in the last quarter. 58.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.