Bessemer Group Inc. Sells 202 Shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Aug 22nd, 2023

Bessemer Group Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG – Free Report) by 1.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,551 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 202 shares during the quarter. Bessemer Group Inc.’s holdings in Scotts Miracle-Gro were worth $945,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,249,815 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $181,680,000 after acquiring an additional 44,071 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,575,124 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $152,837,000 after acquiring an additional 67,591 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 62.7% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,330,654 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $161,837,000 after acquiring an additional 1,283,911 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 37.5% in the 4th quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,325,458 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $161,584,000 after acquiring an additional 906,554 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,203,846 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $51,464,000 after acquiring an additional 6,659 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 69.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SMG has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays downgraded Scotts Miracle-Gro from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $105.00 to $70.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. StockNews.com started coverage on Scotts Miracle-Gro in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $75.00 to $65.00 in a report on Friday, August 4th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $68.00 to $55.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 7th. Finally, Raymond James dropped their target price on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $86.00 to $70.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Scotts Miracle-Gro currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.29.

View Our Latest Research Report on Scotts Miracle-Gro

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO James Hagedorn sold 6,451 shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro stock in a transaction on Monday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.43, for a total value of $357,578.93. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 125,065 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,932,352.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 27.28% of the company’s stock.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Price Performance

SMG stock opened at $49.80 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $61.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $68.71. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has a fifty-two week low of $39.06 and a fifty-two week high of $88.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 19.50.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $1.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by ($0.24). Scotts Miracle-Gro had a negative net margin of 3.59% and a positive return on equity of 91.85%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company will post 1.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 8th. Investors of record on Friday, August 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 24th. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.30%. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s dividend payout ratio is -108.64%.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Profile

(Free Report)

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is involved in the manufacture, marketing, and sale of 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, other durable products, and outdoor cleaners, as well as lawn-related weed, pest, and disease control products; gardening and landscape products comprising 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 live goods and seeding solutions.