SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.08

SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 22nd,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.08 per share by the bank on Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st.

SmartFinancial has increased its dividend by an average of 17.0% annually over the last three years.

SmartFinancial Price Performance

SMBK traded up $2.52 on Wednesday, hitting $34.70. 82,495 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 55,881. The firm has a market capitalization of $587.47 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.89 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90. SmartFinancial has a 12 month low of $19.00 and a 12 month high of $37.72. The business has a 50-day moving average of $33.40 and a two-hundred day moving average of $30.53.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $73.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $42.32 million. SmartFinancial had a net margin of 11.88% and a return on equity of 6.81%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that SmartFinancial will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at SmartFinancial

In other SmartFinancial news, Director John M. Presley sold 6,916 shares of the business’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 sale, the director now directly owns 3,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $138,798. The trade was a 63.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 7,516 shares of company stock valued at $262,600 in the last 90 days. 7.68% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on SMBK. Raymond James upped their target price on SmartFinancial from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Hovde Group raised their price objective on SmartFinancial from $28.00 to $32.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Stephens downgraded SmartFinancial from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, SmartFinancial currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.50.

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.