Empowered Funds LLC Purchases 3,350 Shares of SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK)

Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 67,287 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,350 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC owned 0.40% of SmartFinancial worth $1,961,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its stake in SmartFinancial by 23.7% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 130,361 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,747,000 after acquiring an additional 24,979 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in SmartFinancial by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 789,233 shares of the bank’s stock worth $16,629,000 after buying an additional 19,490 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in SmartFinancial by 320.7% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 54,574 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,289,000 after buying an additional 41,602 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in SmartFinancial by 16.9% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 183,751 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,349,000 after buying an additional 26,583 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mendon Capital Advisors Corp boosted its holdings in SmartFinancial by 5,760.9% in the second quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp now owns 66,990 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,586,000 after acquiring an additional 65,847 shares in the last quarter. 58.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Hovde Group raised their price target on shares of SmartFinancial from $28.00 to $32.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of SmartFinancial from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler downgraded SmartFinancial from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $26.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $29.50.

SmartFinancial Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of SmartFinancial stock opened at $35.67 on Thursday. SmartFinancial, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.00 and a fifty-two week high of $37.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.90. The company has a market cap of $603.89 million, a P/E ratio of 18.40 and a beta of 0.67. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.31.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $73.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $42.32 million. SmartFinancial had a return on equity of 6.81% and a net margin of 11.88%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.43 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that SmartFinancial, Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SmartFinancial Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. SmartFinancial’s payout ratio is 16.49%.

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.