390 Shares in The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) Bought by SBI Securities Co. Ltd.

SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 390 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of SMG. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 125.2% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 5,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $396,000 after acquiring an additional 3,322 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 42,303 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,807,000 after acquiring an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. Versor Investments LP raised its stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 34.4% during the 4th quarter. Versor Investments LP now owns 17,208 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,142,000 after purchasing an additional 4,408 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro during the 4th quarter worth $2,139,000. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. raised its stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 19.6% during the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 3,134 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $208,000 after purchasing an additional 514 shares during the period. 74.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Brian E. Sandoval sold 1,513 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.86, for a total value of $99,646.18. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 13,039 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $858,748.54. This represents a 10.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO James Hagedorn sold 142,733 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.56, for a total value of $10,213,973.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 88,310 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,319,463.60. This represents a 61.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 159,937 shares of company stock valued at $11,379,275. Company insiders own 25.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on SMG shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on 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. Stifel Nicolaus raised Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $78.00 to $70.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Scotts Miracle-Gro in a research report on Monday, December 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $72.00 price target for the company. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $77.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $74.00.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Stock Performance

Shares of SMG stock opened at $59.65 on Friday. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has a fifty-two week low of $55.68 and a fifty-two week high of $93.90. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $66.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $73.38. The company has a market capitalization of $3.43 billion, a P/E ratio of -124.27 and a beta of 1.79.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The basic materials company reported ($0.89) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.23) by $0.34. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a negative return on equity of 51.48% and a negative net margin of 0.67%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($1.45) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.43%. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -550.00%.

Scotts Miracle-Gro 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.