Wellington Management Group LLP Buys 139,009 Shares of SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK)

Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) by 69.0% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 340,418 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 139,009 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in SmartFinancial were worth $9,920,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds 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 second 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in SmartFinancial by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 336,147 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,795,000 after buying an additional 10,623 shares in the last quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. increased its stake in SmartFinancial by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 200,565 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,747,000 after buying an additional 4,412 shares in the last quarter. Foundry Partners LLC raised its holdings in SmartFinancial by 23.9% during the third quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 184,555 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,378,000 after acquiring an additional 35,565 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 16.9% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 183,751 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,349,000 after acquiring an additional 26,583 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 58.78% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John M. Presley sold 6,916 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.05, for a total value of $242,405.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 3,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $138,798. This trade represents a 63.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders sold 7,516 shares of company stock valued at $262,600 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 7.68% of the company’s stock.

SmartFinancial Price Performance

Shares of SmartFinancial stock opened at $34.00 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $575.62 million, a PE ratio of 17.53 and a beta of 0.68. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $33.81 and a 200 day moving average of $28.95. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. SmartFinancial, Inc. has a 12 month low of $19.00 and a 12 month high of $37.72.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last posted its earnings results 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 6.81% and a net margin of 11.88%. The firm had revenue of $73.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $42.32 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.43 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that SmartFinancial, Inc. will post 2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SmartFinancial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.94%. SmartFinancial’s payout ratio is currently 16.49%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on SMBK. Hovde Group increased their target price on SmartFinancial from $28.00 to $32.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of SmartFinancial from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Stephens downgraded shares of SmartFinancial from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.50.

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.