Texas Permanent School Fund Corp Has $3.08 Million Position in The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG)

Texas Permanent School Fund Corp boosted its holdings in shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) by 29.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 47,338 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 10,691 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp owned about 0.08% of Scotts Miracle-Gro worth $3,080,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Choreo LLC bought a new position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro during the second quarter valued at $235,000. Quest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 34,084.2% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 6,495 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $423,000 after acquiring an additional 6,476 shares during the period. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 7.5% during the second quarter. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. now owns 29,433 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,915,000 after acquiring an additional 2,049 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 30.8% during the second quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 23,061 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,500,000 after acquiring an additional 5,433 shares during the period. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 1.9% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 11,904 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $774,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SMG has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Scotts Miracle-Gro has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $80.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Stephen L. Johnson sold 960 shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.95, for a total value of $74,832.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 22,940 shares in the company, valued at $1,788,173. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Hagedorn Partnership, L.P. sold 85,130 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.93, for a total transaction of $6,038,270.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,608,238 shares in the company, valued at approximately $965,232,321.34. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Stephen L. Johnson sold 960 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.95, for a total value of $74,832.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 22,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,788,173. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 89,078 shares of company stock worth $6,325,042 over the last three months. 26.46% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Stock Up 4.9 %

Scotts Miracle-Gro stock opened at $69.74 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $69.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $68.48. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has a 12-month low of $43.67 and a 12-month high of $82.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.18 and a beta of 1.75.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.42. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a negative return on equity of 41.19% and a negative net margin of 7.38%. The business had revenue of $1.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.20 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.17 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company will post 2.62 EPS for the current year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Friday, August 23rd were given a $0.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 23rd. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.79%. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s payout ratio is -42.31%.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Company Profile

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.