HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 813 Shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company $SMG

HighTower Advisors LLC reduced its position in The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) by 3.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 20,446 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 813 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Scotts Miracle-Gro were worth $1,122,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of SMG. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of 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. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 24,020 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,593,000 after acquiring an additional 1,998 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 50.4% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 5,258 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $349,000 after acquiring an additional 1,763 shares during the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 15.9% during the fourth quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 6,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $425,000 after acquiring an additional 876 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro during the fourth quarter worth $1,367,000. 74.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial set a $80.00 target price on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $80.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $71.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Scotts Miracle-Gro currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $71.17.

Insider Buying and Selling at Scotts Miracle-Gro

In other news, Director Hagedorn Partnership, L.P. sold 70,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.28, for a total value of $4,359,600.00. Following the sale, the director owned 13,274,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $826,721,784.72. This represents a 0.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 25.37% of the company’s stock.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Stock Up 0.4%

SMG stock opened at $62.29 on Wednesday. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has a 52 week low of $45.61 and a 52 week high of $93.90. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $64.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $60.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 81.96 and a beta of 1.97.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $2.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.19 by $0.40. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a net margin of 1.54% and a negative return on equity of 60.46%. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.23 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.31 earnings per share. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Scotts Miracle-Gro has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.500- EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company will post 3.42 EPS for the current year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 22nd will be paid a $0.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 22nd. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.2%. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s dividend payout ratio is currently 347.37%.

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.