Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. Makes New $29,000 Investment in The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG)

Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 439 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 24.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,726,338 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $203,359,000 after acquiring an additional 542,406 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 18.2% during the 1st quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,113,153 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $232,210,000 after purchasing an additional 479,315 shares during the last quarter. Interval Partners LP increased its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 3,581.1% in the first quarter. Interval Partners LP now owns 478,546 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $35,695,000 after purchasing an additional 465,546 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 309.5% in the second quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 215,717 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $14,035,000 after buying an additional 163,037 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in Scotts Miracle-Gro during the second quarter valued at approximately $7,341,000. Institutional investors own 74.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SMG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued 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 $80.00.

Insider Activity at Scotts Miracle-Gro

In other Scotts Miracle-Gro news, Director Stephen L. Johnson sold 960 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.95, for a total value of $74,832.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 22,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,788,173. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Scotts Miracle-Gro news, Director Stephen L. Johnson sold 960 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.95, for a total value of $74,832.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 22,940 shares in the company, valued at $1,788,173. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Hagedorn Partnership, L.P. sold 85,130 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.93, for a total transaction of $6,038,270.90. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,608,238 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $965,232,321.34. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 89,078 shares of company stock worth $6,325,042. Insiders own 26.46% of the company’s stock.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Price Performance

NYSE:SMG opened at $86.71 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.90 and a beta of 1.75. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $72.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $69.54. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has a 1 year low of $43.67 and a 1 year high of $88.35.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.42. The company had revenue of $1.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.20 billion. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a negative return on equity of 41.19% and a negative net margin of 7.38%. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s quarterly revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.17 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company will post 2.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Friday, August 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 23rd. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.04%. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s dividend payout ratio is presently -42.31%.

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.