SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume – Should You Buy?

SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) shares saw strong trading volume on Monday . 170,448 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 261% from the previous session’s volume of 47,263 shares.The stock last traded at $36.45 and had previously closed at $36.14.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Raymond James raised their target price on SmartFinancial from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Piper Sandler lowered SmartFinancial from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $26.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $27.00 price target on shares of SmartFinancial in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Hovde Group increased their price target 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, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $29.50.

SmartFinancial Trading Up 1.1 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $618.43 million, a P/E ratio of 18.92 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.90. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $30.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $26.57.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $73.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $42.32 million. SmartFinancial had a return on equity of 6.90% and a net margin of 11.88%. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.43 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that SmartFinancial, Inc. will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SmartFinancial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. SmartFinancial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.49%.

Institutional Trading of SmartFinancial

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 2.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 789,233 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $16,629,000 after purchasing an additional 19,490 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 5.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 699,794 shares of the bank’s stock worth $16,563,000 after acquiring an additional 35,054 shares in the last quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. raised its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 2.2% during the second quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 200,565 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,747,000 after acquiring an additional 4,412 shares in the last quarter. Foundry Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 23.9% during the third quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 184,555 shares of the bank’s stock worth $5,378,000 after acquiring an additional 35,565 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 16.9% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 183,751 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,349,000 after acquiring an additional 26,583 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.