Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC Purchases New Shares in SmartFinancial, Inc. $SMBK

Key Points

• Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC acquired 6,945 shares of SmartFinancial, Inc. for approximately $216,000 in the first quarter.
• Analyst ratings for SmartFinancial show a consensus of Moderate Buy with a target price of $38.25, reflecting recent increases from Raymond James and Hovde Group.
• SmartFinancial announced a quarterly dividend of $0.08 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend yield of 0.9%.

Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 6,945 shares of the bank's stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in SmartFinancial by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 9,091 shares of the bank's stock valued at $282,000 after purchasing an additional 380 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its holdings in SmartFinancial by 269.7% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,538 shares of the bank's stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 1,122 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in SmartFinancial by 0.5% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 276,458 shares of the bank's stock valued at $8,592,000 after purchasing an additional 1,511 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in SmartFinancial by 282.9% during the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,489 shares of the bank's stock valued at $77,000 after purchasing an additional 1,839 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. purchased a new position in SmartFinancial during the first quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.78% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on SMBK. Hovde Group lifted their price target on shares of SmartFinancial from $37.50 to $40.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a "strong-buy" rating and set a $44.00 price target (up previously from $42.00) on shares of SmartFinancial in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of SmartFinancial from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $38.25.

SmartFinancial Price Performance

Shares of SMBK stock traded down $0.14 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $36.78. The company had a trading volume of 35,580 shares, compared to its average volume of 53,737. The company has a market capitalization of $625.94 million, a P/E ratio of 17.19 and a beta of 0.76. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $35.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.64. 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, Inc. has a 52-week low of $26.31 and a 52-week high of $37.72.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The bank reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.66 by $0.03. SmartFinancial had a net margin of 12.67% and a return on equity of 7.33%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.46 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that SmartFinancial, Inc. will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current year.

SmartFinancial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 25th. Investors of record on Friday, August 8th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 8th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. SmartFinancial's dividend payout ratio is presently 12.96%.

SmartFinancial 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.