Wells Fargo & Company Trims Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) Target Price to $75.00

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) had its price objective trimmed by Wells Fargo & Company from $83.00 to $75.00 in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Truist Financial cut shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a buy rating to a hold rating and upped their price objective for the company from $65.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Friday, April 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $70.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. StockNews.com raised shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed a market perform rating on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $71.67.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Stock Performance

SMG opened at $63.52 on Wednesday. Scotts Miracle-Gro has a 12 month low of $43.67 and a 12 month high of $77.95. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $66.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $65.07.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.69 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.33 by $0.36. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a negative net margin of 10.14% and a negative return on equity of 20.97%. The business had revenue of $1.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.78 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Scotts Miracle-Gro will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 24th were paid a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.16%. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s dividend payout ratio is -42.31%.

Insider Transactions at Scotts Miracle-Gro

In other news, Director Hagedorn Partnership, L.P. sold 31,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.67, for a total transaction of $2,159,770.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,746,012 shares in the company, valued at approximately $957,684,656.04. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 26.46% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Scotts Miracle-Gro

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,640,383 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $239,815,000 after buying an additional 35,002 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 18.2% in the 1st quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,113,153 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $232,210,000 after purchasing an additional 479,315 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 24.8% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,726,338 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $203,359,000 after purchasing an additional 542,406 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 545,258 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,760,000 after purchasing an additional 18,975 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Interval Partners LP lifted its stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 3,581.1% in the 1st quarter. Interval Partners LP now owns 478,546 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $35,695,000 after purchasing an additional 465,546 shares during the last quarter. 74.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.