California Public Employees Retirement System cut its holdings in shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG – Get Rating) by 10.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 80,693 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 9,538 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.15% of Scotts Miracle-Gro worth $9,922,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 159.4% in the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 1,177,704 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $189,610,000 after acquiring an additional 723,672 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 341.0% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 327,531 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $52,734,000 after acquiring an additional 253,258 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 4,942,266 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $795,708,000 after acquiring an additional 182,828 shares in the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,901,000. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 28.0% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 543,633 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $87,527,000 after acquiring an additional 119,068 shares in the last quarter. 62.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
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Insider Buying and Selling at Scotts Miracle-Gro
In other Scotts Miracle-Gro news, EVP James D. King sold 17,500 shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.42, for a total value of $1,722,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,760 shares of the company's stock, valued at $960,579.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Scotts Miracle-Gro news, EVP James D. King sold 17,500 shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.42, for a total value of $1,722,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,760 shares of the company's stock, valued at $960,579.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO James Hagedorn sold 60,000 shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro stock in a transaction on Friday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.74, for a total transaction of $5,864,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,816 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $25,589,895.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 27.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
SMG has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $110.00 to $100.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. TheStreet downgraded shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a "c" rating to a "d+" rating in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $130.00 to $95.00 in a report on Thursday, June 9th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $92.00 to $86.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, May 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $113.88.
Scotts Miracle-Gro Trading Up 0.6 %
Shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro stock opened at $80.75 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.55, a current ratio of 2.42 and a quick ratio of 1.13. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $84.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $108.88. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has a 1 year low of $72.58 and a 1 year high of $180.43. The stock has a market cap of $4.47 billion, a PE ratio of -16.72 and a beta of 1.24.
Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 3rd. The basic materials company reported $1.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.28. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a negative net margin of 6.36% and a positive return on equity of 36.80%. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.23 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.98 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was down 26.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company will post 4.15 earnings per share for the current year.
Scotts Miracle-Gro Announces Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 26th will be issued a $0.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 25th. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.27%. Scotts Miracle-Gro's payout ratio is -54.66%.
Scotts Miracle-Gro Company Profile
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The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company engages in the manufacture, marketing, and sale of products for lawn, garden care, and indoor and hydroponic gardening in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: U.S. Consumer, Hawthorne, and Other. It provides lawn care products comprising lawn fertilizers, grass seed products, spreaders, other durable products, and outdoor cleaners, as well as lawn-related weed, pest, and disease control products; gardening and landscape products include water-soluble and continuous-release plant foods, potting mixes and garden soils, mulch and decorative groundcover products, plant-related pest and disease control products, organic garden products, and lives goods and seeding solutions.
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