Cetera Investment Advisers Sells 7,578 Shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG)

Cetera Investment Advisers trimmed its position in shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) by 17.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 34,836 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 7,578 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers owned about 0.06% of Scotts Miracle-Gro worth $2,311,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of SMG. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Scotts Miracle-Gro in the fourth quarter worth about $39,986,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new position in Scotts Miracle-Gro in the fourth quarter worth about $39,434,000. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC raised its stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 157.3% in the fourth quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 469,336 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $31,136,000 after buying an additional 286,962 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 553.0% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 189,198 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $12,549,000 after purchasing an additional 160,225 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro in the fourth quarter worth about $9,684,000. 74.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on SMG shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $80.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. Truist Financial upgraded shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $72.00 to $69.00 in a report on Monday, April 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $65.83.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Stock Up 2.2%

NYSE:SMG opened at $62.45 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $55.05 and its 200-day moving average price is $64.89. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has a 52 week low of $45.61 and a 52 week high of $93.90. The stock has a market cap of $3.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -130.10 and a beta of 1.98.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $3.98 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.95 by $0.03. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a negative net margin of 0.67% and a negative return on equity of 51.48%. The firm had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.69 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Friday, May 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 23rd. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.23%. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 528.00%.

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.