Elizabeth Park Capital Advisors Ltd. Decreases Stock Position in SmartFinancial, Inc. $SMBK

Key Points

• Elizabeth Park Capital Advisors Ltd. has reduced its stake in SmartFinancial, Inc. by 11.1%, holding approximately 113,446 shares valued at $3.53 million as of its recent filing.
• Several institutional investors have increased their holdings in SmartFinancial, with a total of 58.78% of the stock owned by institutional investors.
• SmartFinancial reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the latest quarter, surpassing analysts' consensus estimates, and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.08 per share.

Elizabeth Park Capital Advisors Ltd. reduced its position in shares of SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK - Free Report) by 11.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 113,446 shares of the bank's stock after selling 14,203 shares during the quarter. SmartFinancial accounts for about 3.2% of Elizabeth Park Capital Advisors Ltd.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Elizabeth Park Capital Advisors Ltd. owned 0.67% of SmartFinancial worth $3,526,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 758,069 shares of the bank's stock valued at $23,485,000 after acquiring an additional 32,418 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 28.6% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 437,793 shares of the bank's stock valued at $13,563,000 after acquiring an additional 97,375 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 276,458 shares of the bank's stock valued at $8,592,000 after acquiring an additional 1,511 shares during the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 127,177 shares of the bank's stock valued at $3,940,000 after acquiring an additional 3,390 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 45.9% during the 1st quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 87,634 shares of the bank's stock valued at $2,724,000 after acquiring an additional 27,586 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.78% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on SMBK. 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. Hovde Group raised 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. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of SmartFinancial from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, SmartFinancial presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $38.25.

SmartFinancial Stock Performance

Shares of SMBK traded down $0.14 on Monday, reaching $36.78. The company's stock had a trading volume of 35,580 shares, compared to its average volume of 53,737. 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 stock 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 simple moving average is $35.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.64. SmartFinancial, Inc. has a 12-month low of $26.31 and a 12-month high of $37.72.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 21st. The bank reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 period in the prior year, the business earned $0.46 EPS. Research analysts forecast that SmartFinancial, Inc. will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SmartFinancial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 8th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date 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 (DPR) is presently 12.96%.

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.