Wells Fargo & Company Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) Stock Price

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) had its price target lowered by equities research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $77.00 to $60.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the basic materials company’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 18.52% from the stock’s current price.

SMG has been the topic of a number of other reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro in a research note on Friday, July 31st. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $76.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $71.80.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Trading Up 3.1%

Shares of SMG stock opened at $50.62 on Monday. Scotts Miracle-Gro has a 1-year low of $47.90 and a 1-year high of $75.34. The stock has a market cap of $2.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.02 and a beta of 1.87. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $58.20 and a 200-day moving average of $61.63.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The basic materials company reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.48 by $0.34. The company had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.17 billion. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a negative return on equity of 81.90% and a net margin of 2.19%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.59 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Scotts Miracle-Gro will post 4.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Stephen Johnson sold 1,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.32, for a total transaction of $80,002.72. Following the transaction, the director owned 30,179 shares in the company, valued at $2,061,829.28. The trade was a 3.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Hagedorn Partnership, L.P. sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.45, for a total transaction of $2,023,500.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 13,137,641 shares in the company, valued at approximately $886,133,885.45. This represents a 0.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 32,002 shares of company stock worth $2,154,734 in the last quarter. 24.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Scotts Miracle-Gro

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SMG. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 161.1% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,289,974 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $78,443,000 after buying an additional 795,970 shares in the last quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. boosted its holdings in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 4.9% in the first quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 1,087,339 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $66,121,000 after acquiring an additional 51,148 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 8.8% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 895,841 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $54,475,000 after acquiring an additional 72,179 shares during the period. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro in the first quarter valued at approximately $50,058,000. Finally, Interval Partners LP increased its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 82.3% during the fourth quarter. Interval Partners LP now owns 807,061 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $47,092,000 after acquiring an additional 364,285 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.07% of the company’s stock.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Company Profile

Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is a consumer-focused lawn and garden products company headquartered in Marysville, Ohio. Founded in 1868, the company develops, manufactures and markets products that help consumers grow and maintain lawns, gardens and outdoor spaces.

Its portfolio includes lawn fertilizers, grass seed, plant foods, gardening products, pest-control solutions and related outdoor-care items. Key consumer brands have included Scotts, Miracle-Gro, Ortho and Tomcat, with products sold through home-improvement retailers, mass merchants, nurseries, garden centers and other distribution channels.

Scotts Miracle-Gro primarily serves customers in the United States and Canada.