Equitable Trust Co. Trims Stock Position in SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK)

Equitable Trust Co. decreased its holdings in SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) by 11.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 14,700 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 1,825 shares during the quarter. Equitable Trust Co. owned approximately 0.09% of SmartFinancial worth $455,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 69.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 340,418 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,920,000 after buying an additional 139,009 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in SmartFinancial by 3.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 336,147 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,795,000 after acquiring an additional 10,623 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of SmartFinancial by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 335,501 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,779,000 after purchasing an additional 1,307 shares during the period. Foundry Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of SmartFinancial by 23.9% in the 3rd quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 184,555 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,378,000 after purchasing an additional 35,565 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. acquired a new position in shares of SmartFinancial in the 3rd quarter valued at about $4,491,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.78% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Stephens lowered shares of SmartFinancial from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Hovde Group increased their price objective 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. Finally, Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $42.00 target price (up previously from $36.00) on shares of SmartFinancial in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, SmartFinancial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.70.

SmartFinancial Stock Up 1.6 %

NASDAQ SMBK opened at $36.20 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. SmartFinancial, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.00 and a fifty-two week high of $37.72. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $33.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $31.52. The stock has a market cap of $612.78 million, a PE ratio of 16.91 and a beta of 0.71.

SmartFinancial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.88%. SmartFinancial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14.95%.

Insider Activity at SmartFinancial

In other SmartFinancial news, Director John M. Presley sold 6,916 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.05, for a total value of $242,405.80. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $138,798. This represents a 63.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Chairman Wesley Miller Welborn bought 1,162 shares of SmartFinancial stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $34.75 per share, with a total value of $40,379.50. Following the completion of the purchase, the chairman now owns 96,938 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,368,595.50. The trade was a 1.21 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 7,466 shares of company stock valued at $262,044. Corporate insiders own 7.68% 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.