Crescent Grove Advisors LLC Trims Position in SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK)

Crescent Grove Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) by 26.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 42,573 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 15,000 shares during the quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC’s holdings in SmartFinancial were worth $1,043,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 43.1% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 11,180 shares of the bank’s stock worth $286,000 after buying an additional 3,365 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 17.1% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 73,735 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,887,000 after buying an additional 10,757 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 28.2% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 44,839 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,147,000 after buying an additional 9,858 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 58.5% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 8,657 shares of the bank’s stock worth $221,000 after buying an additional 3,195 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 443,114 shares of the bank’s stock worth $11,335,000 after buying an additional 16,096 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on SMBK. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $27.00 target price on shares of SmartFinancial in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded SmartFinancial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on SmartFinancial from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Raymond James raised their target price on SmartFinancial from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, SmartFinancial has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.50.

SmartFinancial Stock Down 1.2 %

NASDAQ:SMBK traded down $0.23 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $19.17. The stock had a trading volume of 1,436 shares, compared to its average volume of 31,228. The company has a market capitalization of $327.04 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.46 and a beta of 0.69. SmartFinancial, Inc. has a 1-year low of $18.86 and a 1-year high of $25.98. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.10 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $22.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 22nd. The bank reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.02). SmartFinancial had a return on equity of 7.67% and a net margin of 11.90%. The firm had revenue of $65.07 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.14 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.76 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that SmartFinancial, Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

SmartFinancial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 2nd were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 1st. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.67%. SmartFinancial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.93%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other SmartFinancial news, EVP Gary Wayne Petty, Jr. sold 2,394 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.63, for a total value of $51,782.22. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 19,091 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $412,938.33. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 7.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.