Scotts Miracle-Gro (SMG) Competitors

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) and CF Industries (NYSE:CF) are both fertilizers & agricultural chemicals companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, media sentiment, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and profitability.

Do analysts rate SMG or CF?

Scotts Miracle-Gro currently has a consensus price target of $71.17, indicating a potential upside of 12.38%. CF Industries has a consensus price target of $95.00, indicating a potential upside of 9.93%. Given Scotts Miracle-Gro's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Scotts Miracle-Gro is more favorable than CF Industries.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Scotts Miracle-Gro	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67
CF Industries	1 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.27

Which has better valuation & earnings, SMG or CF?

CF Industries has higher revenue and earnings than Scotts Miracle-Gro. CF Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Scotts Miracle-Gro, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Scotts Miracle-Gro	$3.55B	1.03	-$34.90M	$0.76	83.33
CF Industries	$5.94B	2.36	$1.22B	$7.66	11.28

Is SMG or CF more profitable?

CF Industries has a net margin of 20.19% compared to Scotts Miracle-Gro's net margin of 1.54%. CF Industries' return on equity of 17.10% beat Scotts Miracle-Gro's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Scotts Miracle-Gro	1.54%	-60.46%	6.35%
CF Industries	20.19%	17.10%	9.58%

Which has more volatility and risk, SMG or CF?

Scotts Miracle-Gro has a beta of 1.97, suggesting that its stock price is 97% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CF Industries has a beta of 0.94, suggesting that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is SMG or CF a better dividend stock?

Scotts Miracle-Gro pays an annual dividend of $2.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. CF Industries pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Scotts Miracle-Gro pays out 347.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. CF Industries pays out 26.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. CF Industries has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in SMG or CF?

74.1% of Scotts Miracle-Gro shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.1% of CF Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. 25.4% of Scotts Miracle-Gro shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of CF Industries shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media refer more to SMG or CF?

In the previous week, CF Industries had 4 more articles in the media than Scotts Miracle-Gro. MarketBeat recorded 28 mentions for CF Industries and 24 mentions for Scotts Miracle-Gro. CF Industries' average media sentiment score of 1.31 beat Scotts Miracle-Gro's score of 1.06 indicating that CF Industries is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Scotts Miracle-Gro	9 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
CF Industries	18 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

CF Industries beats Scotts Miracle-Gro on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.