Analysts Set The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) Price Target at $72.50

Shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $72.50.

SMG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $70.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, UBS Group set a $67.00 price objective on Scotts Miracle-Gro in a research note on Thursday, January 29th.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Trading Up 1.9%

SMG opened at $62.13 on Friday. Scotts Miracle-Gro has a 1-year low of $45.61 and a 1-year high of $72.35. The company has a market cap of $3.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.27 and a beta of 1.96. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $65.20 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $59.96.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The basic materials company reported ($0.77) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.04) by $0.27. The firm had revenue of $354.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $353.25 million. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a negative return on equity of 68.59% and a net margin of 2.68%.The business’s revenue was down 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.89) EPS. Scotts Miracle-Gro has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.150-4.35 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Scotts Miracle-Gro will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th were paid a $0.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 20th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.2%. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s payout ratio is presently 179.59%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Hagedorn Partnership, L.P. sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.40, for a total transaction of $3,320,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 13,167,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $874,331,362.40. This represents a 0.38% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Mark J. Scheiwer purchased 693 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $71.44 per share, with a total value of $49,507.92. Following the purchase, the executive vice president directly owned 15,370 shares in the company, valued at $1,098,032.80. This trade represents a 4.72% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 24.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Scotts Miracle-Gro

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 60.8% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 138,703 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,016,000 after buying an additional 52,427 shares in the last quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group grew its stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 4,690 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $275,000 after buying an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. MidFirst Bank bought a new stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro during the 4th quarter valued at $233,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 25.6% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 254,087 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $14,826,000 after acquiring an additional 51,738 shares during the period. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro during the fourth quarter worth $286,000. Institutional investors own 74.07% of the company’s stock.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Company Profile

Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is a leading developer, manufacturer and distributor of consumer lawn and garden products. The firm serves both retail and professional customers through an array of branded offerings that include lawn fertilizers, grass seed, pest and disease control solutions, plant foods and specialty products for indoor and outdoor gardening. Its portfolio spans well-known names such as Scotts®, Miracle-Gro®, Ortho® and various hydroponic and specialty garden brands.

Headquartered in Marysville, Ohio, the company traces its roots to O.M.