Stonegate Investment Group LLC Buys New Position in SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK)

Stonegate Investment Group LLC bought a new stake in SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 11,342 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $351,000. Stonegate Investment Group LLC owned about 0.07% of SmartFinancial at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of SmartFinancial by 5.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 699,794 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $16,563,000 after acquiring an additional 35,054 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased 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 valued at $9,920,000 after purchasing an additional 139,009 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in SmartFinancial by 3.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 336,147 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $9,795,000 after purchasing an additional 10,623 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 1,307 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Foundry Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of SmartFinancial by 23.9% in the 3rd quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 184,555 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,378,000 after buying an additional 35,565 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 58.78% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on SMBK shares. Hovde Group boosted their price objective on SmartFinancial from $28.00 to $32.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stephens lowered shares of SmartFinancial from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $42.00 price objective (up from $36.00) on shares of SmartFinancial in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, SmartFinancial currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.70.

SmartFinancial Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SMBK opened at $35.68 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $33.26 and a 200 day moving average of $30.98. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock has a market cap of $603.98 million, a P/E ratio of 16.67 and a beta of 0.70. SmartFinancial, Inc. has a 12 month low of $19.00 and a 12 month high of $37.72.

SmartFinancial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. SmartFinancial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling at SmartFinancial

In related news, Director John M. Presley sold 6,916 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.05, for a total value of $242,405.80. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $138,798. This represents a 63.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 7,516 shares of company stock worth $262,600 over the last three months. 7.68% of the stock is owned by insiders.

SmartFinancial 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.