SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) Receives “Strong-Buy” Rating from Raymond James

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK)‘s stock had its “strong-buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Raymond James in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $42.00 price objective on the bank’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $36.00. Raymond James’ price target points to a potential upside of 21.74% from the stock’s current price.

SMBK has been the subject of several other reports. Hovde Group lifted their target price on shares of SmartFinancial from $28.00 to $32.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stephens downgraded shares of SmartFinancial from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, SmartFinancial presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.70.

SmartFinancial Price Performance

SMBK opened at $34.50 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $584.09 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.08 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $33.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $30.60. SmartFinancial has a twelve month low of $19.00 and a twelve month high of $37.72.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 12.67% and a return on equity of 7.33%. The company had revenue of $73.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $42.32 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.43 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that SmartFinancial will post 2.4 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director John M. Presley sold 6,916 shares of SmartFinancial stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.05, for a total transaction of $242,405.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 3,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $138,798. The trade was a 63.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 7,516 shares of company stock worth $262,600. Company insiders own 7.68% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SmartFinancial

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Huntington National Bank increased its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 5,269.2% in the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,396 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 1,370 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in SmartFinancial during the third quarter worth $161,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of SmartFinancial in the 4th quarter valued at $192,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of SmartFinancial in the 3rd quarter valued at $226,000. Finally, CAP Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of SmartFinancial in the 3rd quarter valued at $230,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.78% of the company’s stock.

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.