The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) Given Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the six research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $71.33.

Several analysts recently issued reports on SMG shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $80.00 to $65.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus cut Scotts Miracle-Gro from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $71.00 in a research note on Monday, June 9th. UBS Group set a $68.00 target price on Scotts Miracle-Gro and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Scotts Miracle-Gro from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and cut their target price for the stock from $72.00 to $69.00 in a research note on Monday, April 7th.

Institutional Trading of Scotts Miracle-Gro

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its position in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 1,487.5% during the 2nd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 99,935 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $6,592,000 after acquiring an additional 93,640 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 546.7% during the second quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 56,144 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,703,000 after purchasing an additional 47,463 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 23.7% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,535 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,344,000 after purchasing an additional 6,805 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 9.6% during the second quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 57,250 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,776,000 after purchasing an additional 5,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 127.9% during the second quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,143 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $405,000 after purchasing an additional 3,448 shares during the last quarter. 74.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of NYSE:SMG traded down $0.79 on Friday, reaching $61.87. 1,205,358 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 828,453. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $64.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.79. Scotts Miracle-Gro has a 52 week low of $45.61 and a 52 week high of $93.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 81.41 and a beta of 1.97.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $2.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.19 by $0.40. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a negative return on equity of 60.46% and a net margin of 1.54%. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.23 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.31 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Scotts Miracle-Gro will post 3.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 22nd. Scotts Miracle-Gro's payout ratio is presently 347.37%.

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.