SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) Stock Rating Lowered by Piper Sandler

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) was downgraded by Piper Sandler from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. They presently have a $28.00 price objective on the bank’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $26.00. Piper Sandler’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 0.57% from the company’s previous close.

SMBK has been the topic of a number of other reports. Hovde Group cut their target price on SmartFinancial from $26.00 to $23.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $27.00 target price on shares of SmartFinancial in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on SmartFinancial from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $27.00.

SmartFinancial Price Performance

Shares of SMBK stock opened at $27.84 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $474.95 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.85 and a beta of 0.71. The business’s fifty day moving average is $23.66 and its 200 day moving average is $22.33. SmartFinancial has a twelve month low of $19.00 and a twelve month high of $28.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.05. SmartFinancial had a return on equity of 6.60% and a net margin of 9.93%. The company had revenue of $68.89 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.32 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.52 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that SmartFinancial will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at SmartFinancial

In related news, Director John M. Presley sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.65, for a total transaction of $169,875.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 35,073 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $794,403.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 7.68% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in SmartFinancial by 19.8% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 8,916 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $218,000 after acquiring an additional 1,474 shares during the period. 1492 Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of SmartFinancial in the fourth quarter worth about $242,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of SmartFinancial in the first quarter worth about $271,000. Equitable Trust Co. raised its stake in shares of SmartFinancial by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Equitable Trust Co. now owns 16,525 shares of the bank’s stock worth $405,000 after buying an additional 1,100 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of SmartFinancial by 429.0% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 23,688 shares of the bank’s stock worth $499,000 after buying an additional 19,210 shares during the period. 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.