Wellington Shields & Co. LLC Sells 662 Shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG)

Wellington Shields & Co. LLC trimmed its holdings in The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) by 13.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,379 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 662 shares during the quarter. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC’s holdings in Scotts Miracle-Gro were worth $291,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. De Lisle Partners LLP bought a new stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $10,162,000. Algert Global LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 202.2% in the 3rd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 25,140 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,180,000 after acquiring an additional 16,821 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,172,800 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $275,082,000 after acquiring an additional 151,354 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 19.6% in the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 3,134 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $208,000 after acquiring an additional 514 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 63.5% in the 3rd quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 56,337 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,884,000 after acquiring an additional 21,872 shares during the last quarter. 74.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Brian E. Sandoval sold 1,513 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.86, for a total transaction of $99,646.18. Following the sale, the director now owns 13,039 shares in the company, valued at approximately $858,748.54. The trade was a 10.40 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO James Hagedorn sold 142,733 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.56, for a total transaction of $10,213,973.48. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 88,310 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,319,463.60. This trade represents a 61.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 159,937 shares of company stock worth $11,379,275. Corporate insiders own 25.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SMG has been the topic of several analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro in a research note on Monday, December 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $72.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $78.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $77.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $85.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $74.00.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro stock opened at $60.59 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $66.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $73.20. The company has a market cap of $3.48 billion, a P/E ratio of -126.22 and a beta of 1.79. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has a 12-month low of $55.68 and a 12-month high of $93.90.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The basic materials company reported ($0.89) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.23) by $0.34. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a negative net margin of 0.67% and a negative return on equity of 51.48%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($1.45) EPS. Analysts predict that The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company will post 3.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a dividend of $0.66 per share. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -550.00%.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Company Profile

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.