Foundry Partners LLC Boosts Position in SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK)

Foundry Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) by 44.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 106,463 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 32,968 shares during the period. Foundry Partners LLC’s holdings in SmartFinancial were worth $2,607,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its stake in SmartFinancial by 68.0% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 7,430 shares of the bank’s stock worth $159,000 after purchasing an additional 3,008 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in SmartFinancial in the third quarter worth $159,000. Bailard Inc. purchased a new stake in SmartFinancial in the third quarter worth $292,000. Equitable Trust Co. grew its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 1,100 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its stake in SmartFinancial by 2.6% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 31,747 shares of the bank’s stock worth $678,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares during the period. 58.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SMBK has been the topic of several recent research reports. Raymond James upped their price target on SmartFinancial from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $27.00 target price on shares of SmartFinancial in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on SmartFinancial from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, StockNews.com raised SmartFinancial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, SmartFinancial currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.50.

SmartFinancial Trading Down 1.1 %

SmartFinancial stock opened at $19.68 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.85 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $21.94. SmartFinancial, Inc. has a 12 month low of $18.86 and a 12 month high of $25.98. The company has a market capitalization of $335.74 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.75 and a beta of 0.69.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Gary Wayne Petty, Jr. sold 2,394 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.63, for a total transaction of $51,782.22. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,091 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $412,938.33. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 7.80% of the company’s stock.

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.