SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) to Issue $0.08 Quarterly Dividend

SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 21st,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.08 per share by the bank on Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st.

SmartFinancial has increased its dividend by an average of 17.0% per year over the last three years.

SmartFinancial Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SMBK opened at $34.70 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $33.32 and a 200 day moving average of $30.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock has a market cap of $587.47 million, a P/E ratio of 15.62 and a beta of 0.70. SmartFinancial has a 12 month low of $19.00 and a 12 month high of $37.72.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $73.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $42.32 million. SmartFinancial had a return on equity of 7.33% and a net margin of 12.67%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.43 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that SmartFinancial will post 2.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SMBK has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Raymond James lifted their price target on SmartFinancial from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Hovde Group lifted their target price on shares of SmartFinancial from $28.00 to $32.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Stephens lowered shares of SmartFinancial from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, SmartFinancial presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John M. Presley sold 6,916 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.05, for a total transaction of $242,405.80. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $138,798. This trade represents a 63.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders sold 7,516 shares of company stock worth $262,600 in the last quarter. 7.68% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.