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

Shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $73.00.

SMG has been the topic of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective 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. StockNews.com raised shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Truist Financial cut shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $65.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Friday, April 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $70.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro in a report on Monday, March 25th.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Hagedorn Partnership, L.P. sold 31,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.67, for a total transaction of $2,159,770.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,746,012 shares in the company, valued at approximately $957,684,656.04. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 26.46% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Rise Advisors LLC raised its position in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 135.2% during the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 334 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro in the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new position in Scotts Miracle-Gro during the fourth quarter worth $47,000. Finally, Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 11,216.7% during the first quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 679 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 673 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.07% of the company’s stock.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Price Performance

Shares of SMG opened at $66.93 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.80 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.73 and a beta of 1.77. Scotts Miracle-Gro has a one year low of $43.67 and a one year high of $77.95. The business has a fifty day moving average of $67.38 and a 200 day moving average of $64.93.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.33 by $0.36. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a negative net margin of 10.14% and a negative return on equity of 20.97%. The company had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.78 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Scotts Miracle-Gro will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 24th were paid a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 23rd. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s payout ratio is currently -42.31%.

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.