Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) Raised to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday morning.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Stifel Nicolaus cut Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $71.00 in a report on Monday, June 9th. Truist Financial set a $80.00 price target on Scotts Miracle-Gro and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. UBS Group set a $68.00 price target on Scotts Miracle-Gro and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $72.00 to $69.00 in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Scotts Miracle-Gro currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $71.17.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Trading Up 1.1%

NYSE:SMG opened at $62.56 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 82.31 and a beta of 1.97. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $64.92 and its 200-day moving average is $61.61. Scotts Miracle-Gro has a 1-year low of $45.61 and a 1-year high of $93.90.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $2.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.19 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.23 billion. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a negative return on equity of 60.46% and a net margin of 1.54%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.31 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Scotts Miracle-Gro will post 3.42 EPS for the current year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.66 per share. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 22nd. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s dividend payout ratio is currently 347.37%.

Institutional Trading of Scotts Miracle-Gro

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 534.3% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 42,424 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,814,000 after buying an additional 35,736 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC grew its position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 63,592 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,219,000 after buying an additional 5,275 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro during the 4th quarter worth approximately $9,684,000. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro during the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,008,000. Finally, Huntington National Bank grew its position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 5.8% during the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 3,664 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $243,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.07% of the company’s stock.

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.