SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) Stock Rating Lowered by Stephens

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) was downgraded by investment analysts at Stephens from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Raymond James lifted their price objective on SmartFinancial from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Hovde Group lifted their price target on SmartFinancial from $28.00 to $32.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $29.50.

SmartFinancial Stock Up 0.5 %

SMBK opened at $35.12 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $33.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.71. SmartFinancial has a 52 week low of $19.00 and a 52 week high of $37.72. The company has a market cap of $594.58 million, a PE ratio of 18.10 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.05. SmartFinancial had a return on equity of 6.81% and a net margin of 11.88%. 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. As a group, research analysts anticipate that SmartFinancial will post 2.02 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John M. Presley sold 6,916 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.05, for a total transaction 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 represents a 63.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 7,586 shares of company stock worth $264,600. 7.68% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of SmartFinancial

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SMBK. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of SmartFinancial by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 789,233 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $16,629,000 after purchasing an additional 19,490 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted 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 valued at $16,563,000 after purchasing an additional 35,054 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of SmartFinancial by 69.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 340,418 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $9,920,000 after acquiring an additional 139,009 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in SmartFinancial by 3.3% during the 3rd 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. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position 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 worth $9,779,000 after buying an additional 1,307 shares in 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.