Raymond James Financial Reaffirms "Strong-Buy" Rating for SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK)

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "strong-buy" rating reissued by research analysts at Raymond James Financial in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $44.00 price objective on the bank's stock, up from their previous price objective of $42.00. Raymond James Financial's target price suggests a potential upside of 22.65% from the company's previous close.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Stephens reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating and set a $31.00 price target on shares of SmartFinancial in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on SmartFinancial from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Hovde Group raised their target price on SmartFinancial from $37.50 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, SmartFinancial currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $36.20.

SmartFinancial Stock Performance

Shares of SMBK traded down $0.18 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $35.88. The company's stock had a trading volume of 16,465 shares, compared to its average volume of 54,731. SmartFinancial has a 1-year low of $25.58 and a 1-year high of $37.72. The stock has a market cap of $610.52 million, a P/E ratio of 16.77 and a beta of 0.70. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $33.27 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $32.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 21st. The bank reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.66 by $0.03. SmartFinancial had a return on equity of 7.33% and a net margin of 12.67%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.46 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that SmartFinancial will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 758,069 shares of the bank's stock worth $23,485,000 after purchasing an additional 32,418 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in SmartFinancial by 28.6% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 437,793 shares of the bank's stock valued at $13,563,000 after purchasing an additional 97,375 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position 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. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its position in SmartFinancial by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 208,193 shares of the bank's stock valued at $6,450,000 after purchasing an additional 1,230 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in SmartFinancial by 6.2% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 156,591 shares of the bank's stock valued at $4,866,000 after purchasing an additional 9,122 shares in the last quarter. 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.

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