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

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $72.6667.

SMG has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 6th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $63.00 target price on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $79.00 target price on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $70.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 26th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Scotts Miracle-Gro

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 60.7% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 8,555 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $520,000 after buying an additional 3,232 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 16.4% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 658,602 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $40,050,000 after buying an additional 92,614 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 661.9% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,219 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 1,059 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 23.8% during the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 54,043 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,286,000 after buying an additional 10,372 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 182.2% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 66,698 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,057,000 after purchasing an additional 43,066 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.07% of the company’s stock.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Stock Performance

Scotts Miracle-Gro stock opened at $64.71 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $61.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $62.14. Scotts Miracle-Gro has a 52 week low of $52.00 and a 52 week high of $72.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.15 and a beta of 1.84.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The basic materials company reported $4.53 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.97 by $0.56. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a net margin of 3.27% and a negative return on equity of 79.61%. The firm had revenue of $1.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.98 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Scotts Miracle-Gro will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 22nd. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.1%. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 147.49%.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Company Profile

Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is a leading developer, manufacturer and distributor of consumer lawn and garden products. The firm serves both retail and professional customers through an array of branded offerings that include lawn fertilizers, grass seed, pest and disease control solutions, plant foods and specialty products for indoor and outdoor gardening. Its portfolio spans well-known names such as Scotts®, Miracle-Gro®, Ortho® and various hydroponic and specialty garden brands.

Headquartered in Marysville, Ohio, the company traces its roots to O.M.