SmartBank earnings improve
SmartFinancial Inc. said today it earned $1.3 million, or 23 cents per share, in the third quarter as the Knoxville-based banking firm completed its first full year after the merger of Chattanooga’s Cornerstone Bank with Sevier County’s SmartBank a year ago.
SmartFinancial achieved an annualized return on average assets equal to 0.63 percent in the third quarter of 2016, up from 0.48 percent in the previous quarter. The bank said loan volume grew 12.42 pecent in the past year while nonperforming assets as a share of total assets fell to just 0.41 percent.
“We are pleased to see the hard work of our associates materialize in the form of improved results for our shareholders with increases in earnings per share, return on equity and return on assets this quarter,” Billy Carroll, president and CEO of SmartFinancial, said in a statement.
Net income available to common shareholders was up 46 percent from a year ago when the banking firm earned $900,000, or 15 cents per share.
SmartFinancial’s chairman, Miller Welborn, said he is encouraged by the improved results for the combined banking firm.
“To be able to grow while maintaining a strong margin, improving asset quality, and increasing efficiencies is a testament to leadership at all levels of our company,” he said.
Joseph Fenech, a financial analyst with the Hovde Group, said in a report this summer that the merger of Cornerstone and SmartBank “creates a compelling eastern Tennessee-based franchise” with more than $1 billion in assets.
“Valuation strikes us as compelling, as the company also surpasses a size threshold where ‘things just start to happen,’” Fenech said.
Smart Financial closed Tuesday at $16.46 per share, up from its initial price of $15.30 per share a year ago.