B. Riley Financial Begins Coverage on SmartRent (NYSE:SMRT)

Investment analysts at B. Riley Financial assumed coverage on shares of SmartRent (NYSE:SMRT) in a research report issued on Tuesday, Briefing.com reports. The brokerage set a “buy” rating and a $1.75 price target on the stock. B. Riley Financial’s target price suggests a potential upside of 51.52% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on SMRT. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of SmartRent from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on SmartRent from $1.40 to $1.20 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $1.48.

SmartRent Stock Performance

SMRT stock opened at $1.16 on Tuesday. SmartRent has a 52-week low of $0.91 and a 52-week high of $2.20. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $1.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $1.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $221.31 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.55 and a beta of 1.64.

SmartRent (NYSE:SMRT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.02) by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $38.39 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.62 million. SmartRent had a negative return on equity of 8.50% and a negative net margin of 12.97%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that SmartRent will post -0.10 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Frank Martell acquired 100,000 shares of SmartRent stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $1.42 per share, with a total value of $142,000.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,672,086 shares in the company, valued at $5,214,362.12. The trade was a 2.80% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas Bohjalian acquired 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $1.40 per share, for a total transaction of $56,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 766,062 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,072,486.80. This represents a 5.51% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have bought a total of 267,000 shares of company stock valued at $378,110 in the last quarter. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. CTC Alternative Strategies Ltd. purchased a new position in SmartRent in the first quarter worth about $26,000. SummitTX Capital L.P. purchased a new stake in SmartRent during the first quarter valued at approximately $34,000. R Squared Ltd raised its position in SmartRent by 67.1% during the first quarter. R Squared Ltd now owns 78,481 shares of the company’s stock valued at $118,000 after purchasing an additional 31,503 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of SmartRent by 3,458.5% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 35,585 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 34,585 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mozayyx Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of SmartRent in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $81,000. Institutional investors own 59.42% of the company’s stock.

About SmartRent

SmartRent, Inc provides smart-home and property-management technology for rental housing owners, operators and residents. Its platform is designed to help property managers automate operations, improve the resident experience and manage connected devices across multifamily, single-family rental, student housing and other residential communities.

The company’s offerings include smart access systems, connected thermostats, sensors, leak detection devices and other Internet of Things hardware, supported by cloud-based software.