SlateStone Wealth LLC Boosts Stake in SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK)

SlateStone Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) by 54.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 33,427 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,750 shares during the period. SlateStone Wealth LLC owned approximately 0.20% of SmartFinancial worth $819,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in SmartFinancial during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $159,000. Panagora Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of SmartFinancial in the 3rd quarter valued at $758,000. Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 31,747 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $678,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 68.0% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 7,430 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $159,000 after purchasing an additional 3,008 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bailard Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of SmartFinancial in the 3rd quarter valued at $292,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of SmartFinancial from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 5th. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $26.00 target price on shares of SmartFinancial in a research report on Tuesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of SmartFinancial from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of SmartFinancial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.25.

SmartFinancial Stock Performance

SmartFinancial stock traded up $0.65 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $20.31. 20,700 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 32,100. SmartFinancial, Inc. has a 12-month low of $18.86 and a 12-month high of $25.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.88. The stock has a market cap of $346.49 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.10 and a beta of 0.69. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $20.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $21.94.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 22nd. The bank reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.02). SmartFinancial had a return on equity of 7.67% and a net margin of 11.90%. The business had revenue of $65.07 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.14 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.76 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that SmartFinancial, Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other SmartFinancial news, EVP Gary Wayne Petty, Jr. sold 2,394 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were 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 approximately $412,938.33. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 7.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.