Raymond James Reiterates Strong-Buy Rating for SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK)

Raymond James reaffirmed their strong-buy rating on shares of SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) in a research report report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $42.00 target price on the bank’s stock, up from their previous target price of $36.00.

SMBK has been the topic of a number of other reports. Stephens lowered shares of SmartFinancial from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Hovde Group upped 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. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, SmartFinancial currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.70.

SmartFinancial Trading Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ SMBK opened at $34.88 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $33.29 and its 200 day moving average price is $30.63. SmartFinancial has a 12 month low of $19.00 and a 12 month high of $37.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The company has a market capitalization of $590.48 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.30 and a beta of 0.70.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $73.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $42.32 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.43 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that SmartFinancial will post 2.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SmartFinancial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. SmartFinancial’s payout ratio is 14.95%.

Insider Activity at SmartFinancial

In other news, Director John M. Presley sold 6,916 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 3,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $138,798. This represents a 63.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 7,516 shares of company stock worth $262,600 over the last three months. 7.68% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SmartFinancial

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SMBK. Huntington National Bank raised its holdings in SmartFinancial by 5,269.2% during the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,396 shares of the bank’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 1,370 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of SmartFinancial in the 3rd quarter worth about $161,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in SmartFinancial in the 4th quarter valued at about $192,000. Ridgepath Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in SmartFinancial during the 4th quarter valued at about $202,000. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in SmartFinancial during the third quarter worth about $226,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.78% of the company’s stock.

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.