Tudor Investment Corp ET AL Invests $724,000 in SmartFinancial, Inc. $SMBK

Tudor Investment Corp ET AL acquired a new stake in SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBK) during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 20,267 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $724,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in SmartFinancial during the third quarter worth $35,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in SmartFinancial by 46.0% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,499 shares of the bank’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 472 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its position in SmartFinancial by 173.4% during the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,895 shares of the bank’s stock worth $64,000 after buying an additional 1,202 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its stake in shares of SmartFinancial by 27.7% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,160 shares of the bank’s stock worth $113,000 after buying an additional 685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of SmartFinancial in the 2nd quarter valued at about $128,000. Institutional investors own 58.78% of the company’s stock.

SmartFinancial Stock Performance

NASDAQ SMBK opened at $39.04 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $667.47 million, a P/E ratio of 18.24 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $39.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.75. SmartFinancial, Inc. has a 1 year low of $26.31 and a 1 year high of $43.90.

SmartFinancial Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 13th were issued a $0.08 dividend. 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, February 13th. SmartFinancial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.74%.

SmartFinancial declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Friday, January 30th that allows the company to buyback $10.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the bank to repurchase up to 1.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SMBK has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Zacks Research downgraded SmartFinancial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Hovde Group upgraded SmartFinancial from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.50.

Insider Transactions at SmartFinancial

In other news, Chairman Wesley Miller Welborn bought 835 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 9th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $43.13 per share, for a total transaction of $36,013.55. Following the purchase, the chairman owned 96,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,160,664.84. This trade represents a 0.87% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 7.62% of the company’s stock.

SmartFinancial Company Profile

SmartFinancial, Inc is a bank holding company headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, operating through its primary subsidiary, SmartBank. Incorporated in 2006, the company provides a full suite of banking and financial services to individuals, small and middle-market businesses and public entities across its regional footprint. SmartFinancial’s network of branch offices and digital platforms combines community-banking relationships with modern technology to serve its customers’ evolving needs.

Through SmartBank, the company offers a broad range of deposit products, including checking, savings and certificate of deposit accounts, alongside consumer and commercial lending solutions.