Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Sells 12,417 Shares of SmartFinancial, Inc. $SMBK

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. decreased its stake in shares of SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) by 10.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 104,914 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 12,417 shares during the quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. owned about 0.62% of SmartFinancial worth $3,261,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of SMBK. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of SmartFinancial by 28.6% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 437,793 shares of the bank’s stock worth $13,563,000 after buying an additional 97,375 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in SmartFinancial in the 1st quarter valued at $2,196,000. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in SmartFinancial by 281.7% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 60,255 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,867,000 after purchasing an additional 44,467 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in SmartFinancial by 150.9% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 51,972 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,615,000 after purchasing an additional 31,255 shares during the period. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC grew its position in SmartFinancial by 263.2% in the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 42,385 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,317,000 after purchasing an additional 30,715 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.78% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of SmartFinancial from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $44.00 price objective (up from $42.00) on shares of SmartFinancial in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Hovde Group raised their price objective on SmartFinancial from $37.50 to $40.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded SmartFinancial from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, SmartFinancial currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $38.25.

SmartFinancial Stock Up 2.6%

Shares of SMBK opened at $37.80 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $643.36 million, a P/E ratio of 17.66 and a beta of 0.81. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $32.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90. SmartFinancial, Inc. has a 1 year low of $26.31 and a 1 year high of $37.89.

SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The bank reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.66 by $0.03. SmartFinancial had a return on equity of 7.33% and a net margin of 12.67%.During the same period last year, the company earned $0.46 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that SmartFinancial, Inc. will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SmartFinancial Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 8th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 8th. SmartFinancial’s dividend payout ratio is 12.96%.

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.