Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) versus Moolec Science (NASDAQ:MLEC) Head-To-Head Comparison

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) and Moolec Science (NASDAQ:MLEC) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Scotts Miracle-Gro and Moolec Science’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Scotts Miracle-Gro	3.27%	-79.61%	8.53%
Moolec Science	N/A	N/A	N/A

Institutional and Insider Ownership

74.1% of Scotts Miracle-Gro shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.1% of Moolec Science shares are held by institutional investors. 24.4% of Scotts Miracle-Gro shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 19.9% of Moolec Science shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Scotts Miracle-Gro and Moolec Science, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Scotts Miracle-Gro	0	4	4	0	2.50
Moolec Science	0	0	0	0	0.00

Scotts Miracle-Gro presently has a consensus price target of $74.00, indicating a potential upside of 19.81%. Given Scotts Miracle-Gro’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Scotts Miracle-Gro is more favorable than Moolec Science.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Scotts Miracle-Gro and Moolec Science”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Scotts Miracle-Gro	$3.41 billion	1.05	$145.20 million	$1.47	42.02
Moolec Science	$333.61 million	0.02	-$111.46 million	($33.00)	-0.31

Scotts Miracle-Gro has higher revenue and earnings than Moolec Science. Moolec Science is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Scotts Miracle-Gro, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Scotts Miracle-Gro has a beta of 1.88, suggesting that its share price is 88% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Moolec Science has a beta of 0.37, suggesting that its share price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Scotts Miracle-Gro beats Moolec Science on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. It offers hydroponic products that help users to grow plants, flowers, and vegetables using little or no soil; lighting systems and components for use in hydroponic and indoor gardening applications; insect, rodent, and weed control products for home areas; and non-selective weed killer products. The company sells its products under the Scotts, Turf Builder, EZ Seed, PatchMaster, Thick'R Lawn, GrubEx, EdgeGuard, Handy Green II, Miracle-Gro, LiquaFeed, Shake N Feed, Hyponex, Earthgro, Nature Scapes, Ortho, Miracle-Gro Performance Organics, Miracle-Gro Organic Choice, Whitney Farms, EcoScraps, Mother Earth, Botanicare, General Hydroponics, Cyco, Gavita, Agrolux, HydroLogic Purification System, Gro Pro, AeroGarden, Titan, Tomcat, Ortho Weed B Gon, Roundup, Groundclear, and Alchemist brands. It serves home centers, mass merchandisers, warehouse clubs, large hardware chains, independent hardware stores, nurseries, garden centers, e-commerce platforms, and food and drug stores, as well as indoor gardening and hydroponic distributors, retailers, and growers. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company was founded in 1868 and is headquartered in Marysville, Ohio.

About Moolec Science

Moolec Science SA, a science-based food ingredient company, focuses on developing real animal proteins in plants using molecular farming. It offers Chymosin SPC, a dairy ingredient; GLA SONOVA, a nutritional oil; POORK+, a plant-based, animal meat free ingredient with porcine proteins in soybeans; and BEEF+, a meat replacement product. It operates in the United States, Europe, and South America. The company was founded in 2020 and is based in Luxembourg.