Vanguard Group Inc. Acquires 9,470 Shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG)

Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) by 0.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,649,853 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,470 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 8.20% of Scotts Miracle-Gro worth $296,428,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kestra Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 7.8% during the third quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 6,929 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $358,000 after purchasing an additional 499 shares in the last quarter. Mariner LLC boosted its stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 3.3% during the third quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 11,700 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $605,000 after purchasing an additional 371 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 13.3% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,011,906 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $52,295,000 after purchasing an additional 119,115 shares in the last quarter. Teza Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 99.0% in the third quarter. Teza Capital Management LLC now owns 11,535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $596,000 after acquiring an additional 5,738 shares during the period. Finally, Gotham Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 21.1% in the third quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 43,266 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,236,000 after acquiring an additional 7,542 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 74.07% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Hagedorn Partnership, L.P. sold 31,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.67, for a total transaction of $2,159,770.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,746,012 shares in the company, valued at $957,684,656.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 26.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SMG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro in a research note on Monday, March 25th. StockNews.com raised Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $70.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $85.00 to $83.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $73.00.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Stock Performance

Shares of SMG stock opened at $65.06 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.70 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.43 and a beta of 1.77. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has a fifty-two week low of $43.67 and a fifty-two week high of $77.95. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $67.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $65.04.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.69 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.33 by $0.36. The firm had revenue of $1.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a negative return on equity of 20.97% and a negative net margin of 10.14%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.78 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 24th were issued a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.06%. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s dividend payout ratio is -42.31%.

Scotts Miracle-Gro 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.