Bank of New York Mellon Corp Boosts Position in SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) by 4.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 96,021 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,810 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned approximately 0.56% of SmartFinancial worth $2,273,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SMBK. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in SmartFinancial by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 789,233 shares of the bank’s stock worth $16,629,000 after purchasing an additional 19,490 shares in the last quarter. Salzhauer Michael raised its stake in SmartFinancial by 5.5% in the first quarter. Salzhauer Michael now owns 243,467 shares of the bank’s stock worth $5,130,000 after buying an additional 12,700 shares in the last quarter. Foundry Partners LLC lifted its holdings in SmartFinancial by 41.7% in the first quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 150,870 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,179,000 after buying an additional 44,407 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in SmartFinancial by 23.7% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 130,361 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,747,000 after buying an additional 24,979 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 7.9% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 59,437 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,252,000 after acquiring an additional 4,375 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.78% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler cut SmartFinancial from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $26.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $27.00 price objective on shares of SmartFinancial in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Hovde Group upped their target price on shares of SmartFinancial from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Four research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, SmartFinancial currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $27.00.

SmartFinancial Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:SMBK opened at $29.18 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $27.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $23.74. SmartFinancial, Inc. has a 12-month low of $19.00 and a 12-month high of $29.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $497.90 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.71 and a beta of 0.69.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.05. SmartFinancial had a net margin of 9.93% and a return on equity of 6.55%. The company had revenue of $68.89 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.32 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.52 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that SmartFinancial, Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SmartFinancial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 26th. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.10%. SmartFinancial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.51%.

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.