Brokerages Set SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) Price Target at $27.00

Shares of SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the five brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, one has given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $27.00.

A number of research firms recently weighed in on SMBK. Piper Sandler cut shares of SmartFinancial from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $26.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Hovde Group boosted their price target on shares of SmartFinancial from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $27.00 price target on shares of SmartFinancial in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd.

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. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 2.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 789,233 shares of the bank’s stock worth $16,629,000 after purchasing an additional 19,490 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 5.3% during 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. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. lifted its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 2.2% during the second quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 200,565 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,747,000 after purchasing an additional 4,412 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 16.9% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 183,751 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,349,000 after purchasing an additional 26,583 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Foundry Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 41.7% during the first quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 150,870 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,179,000 after purchasing an additional 44,407 shares in the last quarter. 58.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

SmartFinancial Stock Performance

NASDAQ SMBK opened at $31.04 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $529.64 million, a P/E ratio of 19.90 and a beta of 0.69. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $28.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.32. SmartFinancial has a twelve month low of $19.00 and a twelve month high of $31.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $73.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $42.32 million. SmartFinancial had a net margin of 9.93% and a return on equity of 6.55%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.43 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that SmartFinancial will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SmartFinancial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.03%. SmartFinancial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.51%.

About SmartFinancial

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.