Reviewing SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) and UniCredit (OTCMKTS:UNCRY)

UniCredit (OTCMKTS:UNCRY) and SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for UniCredit and SmartFinancial, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
UniCredit	0	0	0	0	N/A
SmartFinancial	0	3	1	1	2.60

SmartFinancial has a consensus price target of $27.00, indicating a potential downside of 13.09%. Given SmartFinancial’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe SmartFinancial is more favorable than UniCredit.

Profitability

This table compares UniCredit and SmartFinancial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
UniCredit	N/A	N/A	N/A
SmartFinancial	9.93%	6.55%	0.62%

Dividends

UniCredit pays an annual dividend of $0.66 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. SmartFinancial pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. SmartFinancial pays out 20.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

0.3% of UniCredit shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.8% of SmartFinancial shares are held by institutional investors. 7.7% of SmartFinancial shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

UniCredit has a beta of 1.18, indicating that its stock price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SmartFinancial has a beta of 0.69, indicating that its stock price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares UniCredit and SmartFinancial”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
UniCredit	$26.50 billion	2.73	$9.32 billion	N/A	N/A
SmartFinancial	$151.31 million	3.50	$28.59 million	$1.56	19.91

UniCredit has higher revenue and earnings than SmartFinancial.

Summary

SmartFinancial beats UniCredit on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About UniCredit

UniCredit S.p.A. provides commercial banking services in Italy, Germany, Central Europe, and Eastern Europe. It offers retail, private, and wealth management solutions; and institutional investor solutions. The company also provides corporate finance advisory, rating advisory, financial sponsor, patient capital, capital structure advisory, and finance solutions, as well as securities services. In addition, it offers transactional and risk management, and strategic advisory and funding services; group trade and correspondent banking services; and payments and cash management solutions. The company serves SME, corporate, multinational corporate, financial institution, and public sector clients, as well as retail, private banking, wealth management, and family office clients. The company was founded in 1870 and is headquartered in Milan, Italy.

About SmartFinancial

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. The company offers noninterest-bearing and interest-bearing checking, interest-bearing demand, savings, money market, time deposit, individual retirement accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also provides commercial and residential real estate, consumer real estate, and construction and land development loans; commercial and financial loans and leases; commercial business and mortgage loans; and direct consumer installment, educational, agriculture, and other revolving credit loans; equipment financing, heavy equipment, semis, and trailers loans and leases to small and mid-size companies; letters of credit; and overdraft facilities. In addition, the company offers wealth management, insurance, mortgage origination, and internet and mobile banking services. SmartFinancial, Inc. is headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee.