The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $70.00.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on SMG shares. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro in a research report on Monday, March 25th. StockNews.com raised Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $70.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Truist Financial lowered Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the company from $65.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th.

Insider Activity at Scotts Miracle-Gro

In other Scotts Miracle-Gro news, Director Stephen L. Johnson sold 1,394 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.35, for a total transaction of $79,945.90. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 22,918 shares in the company, valued at $1,314,347.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Scotts Miracle-Gro news, Director Stephen L. Johnson sold 1,394 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.35, for a total transaction of $79,945.90. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 22,918 shares in the company, valued at $1,314,347.30. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Hagedorn Partnership, L.P. sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.40, for a total transaction of $876,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,881,368 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $810,671,891.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 102,750 shares of company stock worth $6,604,492. 26.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 62.7% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,330,654 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $161,837,000 after buying an additional 1,283,911 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro during the third quarter worth $28,336,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 52.5% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,543,066 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $98,370,000 after purchasing an additional 531,160 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro during the 4th quarter valued at $27,699,000. Finally, Intrinsic Edge Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro during the 1st quarter worth $29,141,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.07% of the company’s stock.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Stock Performance

Scotts Miracle-Gro stock opened at $66.78 on Friday. Scotts Miracle-Gro has a fifty-two week low of $43.67 and a fifty-two week high of $77.95. The company has a market capitalization of $3.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.49 and a beta of 1.70. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $66.94 and a two-hundred day moving average of $59.66.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The basic materials company reported ($1.45) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.62) by $0.17. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a negative return on equity of 44.37% and a negative net margin of 11.52%. The firm had revenue of $410.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $412.83 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($1.02) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Scotts Miracle-Gro will post 2.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Investors of record on Friday, February 23rd were given a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -37.50%.

About Scotts Miracle-Gro

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, markets, and sells products for lawn, garden care, and indoor and hydroponic gardening in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: U.S. Consumer, Hawthorne, and Other. The company provides lawn care products, comprising lawn fertilizers, grass seed products, spreaders, and other durable products, as well as lawn-related weed, pest, and disease control products; and gardening and landscape products, which include water-soluble and continuous-release plant foods, potting mixes, garden soils, mulches and ground cover products, plant-related pest and disease control products, organic garden products, and live goods and seeding solutions.