KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS Acquires 900 Shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company $SMG

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS boosted its holdings in shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) by 10.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,800 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS’s holdings in Scotts Miracle-Gro were worth $646,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SMG. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 31.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,614 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $89,000 after buying an additional 388 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 0.7% during the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 74,483 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,088,000 after buying an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro during the first quarter worth approximately $226,000. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 4.8% during the first quarter. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC now owns 4,524 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $248,000 after buying an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 0.3% during the first quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 216,304 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $11,873,000 after buying an additional 647 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $71.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 4th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, September 13th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $75.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $69.17.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Mark J. Scheiwer purchased 1,790 shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $61.32 per share, with a total value of $109,762.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 10,130 shares in the company, valued at $621,171.60. This trade represents a 21.46% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Hagedorn Partnership, L.P. sold 56,633 shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro stock in a transaction on Friday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.02, for a total transaction of $3,569,011.66. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 13,217,641 shares in the company, valued at approximately $832,975,735.82. This represents a 0.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 25.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Stock Performance

SMG opened at $54.26 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $59.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $60.05. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has a 52 week low of $45.61 and a 52 week high of $93.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.13 billion, a PE ratio of 71.40 and a beta of 1.96.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $2.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.23 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.31 EPS. The business’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. Equities analysts forecast that The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company will post 3.42 EPS for the current year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.66 per share. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 22nd. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s payout ratio is currently 347.37%.

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.