Stephens Reiterates Overweight Rating for SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK)

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reiterated by research analysts at Stephens in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $26.00 price objective on the bank’s stock. Stephens’ target price points to a potential upside of 24.28% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James raised their price target on shares of SmartFinancial from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on SmartFinancial from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded SmartFinancial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.40.

SmartFinancial Trading Up 3.5 %

SMBK opened at $20.92 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.88. SmartFinancial has a fifty-two week low of $18.86 and a fifty-two week high of $25.98. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $20.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.93. The company has a market cap of $356.83 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.41 and a beta of 0.69.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 22nd. The bank reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.02). SmartFinancial had a return on equity of 6.94% and a net margin of 10.65%. The business had revenue of $65.07 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.14 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.76 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that SmartFinancial will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other SmartFinancial news, EVP Gary Wayne Petty, Jr. sold 2,394 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.63, for a total transaction of $51,782.22. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,091 shares in the company, valued at approximately $412,938.33. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 7.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SmartFinancial

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SMBK. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp bought a new stake in SmartFinancial in the fourth quarter worth about $1,872,000. 1492 Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of SmartFinancial during the 4th quarter valued at $242,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in SmartFinancial by 11.2% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 23,300 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $571,000 after purchasing an additional 2,350 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 48.6% during the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 105,382 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,581,000 after purchasing an additional 34,488 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SlateStone Wealth LLC increased its stake in SmartFinancial by 54.2% in the fourth quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC now owns 33,427 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $819,000 after acquiring an additional 11,750 shares during the last quarter. 58.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.