Investment House LLC Sells 31,230 Shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company $SMG

Investment House LLC trimmed its stake in shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) by 71.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,385 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 31,230 shares during the quarter. Investment House LLC’s holdings in Scotts Miracle-Gro were worth $621,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. bought a new stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro in the first quarter valued at $50,058,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 161.1% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,289,974 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $78,443,000 after acquiring an additional 795,970 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 401.6% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 153,678 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,345,000 after acquiring an additional 123,041 shares during the period. Madison Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro in the 2nd quarter valued at $7,163,000. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LP boosted its stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 500.3% in the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 114,728 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $7,814,000 after purchasing an additional 95,616 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.07% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Scotts Miracle-Gro news, Director Mark D. Kingdon sold 831 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.65, for a total transaction of $51,231.15. Following the sale, the director owned 10,827 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $667,484.55. This represents a 7.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Stephen Johnson sold 1,171 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.32, for a total transaction of $80,002.72. Following the sale, the director directly owned 30,179 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,061,829.28. This represents a 3.74% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 32,002 shares of company stock worth $2,154,734 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 24.40% of the company’s stock.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Stock Performance

Shares of SMG opened at $59.28 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $55.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $60.74. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has a 52-week low of $47.90 and a 52-week high of $75.34. The company has a market cap of $3.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.55 and a beta of 1.87.

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 business’s revenue was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.59 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company will post 4.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 4th. Investors of record on Friday, August 21st were given a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 21st. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.5%. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s dividend payout ratio is 229.57%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on SMG. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $77.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 5th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $78.00 to $70.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $76.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.20.

About Scotts Miracle-Gro

Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is a provider of consumer lawn and garden products headquartered in Marysville, Ohio. The company develops and markets products designed to help consumers grow and maintain lawns, gardens, landscapes and indoor plants.

Its portfolio includes lawn fertilizers, grass seed, plant food, gardening products, pest-control solutions, soils and related growing supplies. Key consumer brands include Scotts, Miracle-Gro, Ortho and Tomcat. The company also has a history of serving the controlled-environment agriculture and hydroponics markets through specialized growing products and supplies.

Scotts Miracle-Gro was founded in 1868 and has built a broad distribution network serving retail customers, garden centers and other outlets.