The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company $SMG Shares Sold by AQR Capital Management LLC

AQR Capital Management LLC lessened its holdings in The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) by 65.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 147,250 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 274,587 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Scotts Miracle-Gro were worth $7,940,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. increased its holdings in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 21.9% in the first quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 3,819 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $210,000 after buying an additional 685 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 31.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,614 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $89,000 after acquiring an additional 388 shares during the last quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro in the first quarter valued at approximately $226,000. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,011,000. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro during the 1st quarter worth $5,475,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SMG has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Truist Financial set a $80.00 target price on Scotts Miracle-Gro and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $71.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, UBS Group set a $68.00 price target on Scotts Miracle-Gro and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $71.17.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Stock Performance

SMG opened at $61.66 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $64.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.35. The company has a market cap of $3.56 billion, a PE ratio of 81.13 and a beta of 1.98. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has a 1 year low of $45.61 and a 1 year high of $93.90.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $2.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.19 by $0.40. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.23 billion. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a negative return on equity of 60.46% and a net margin of 1.54%.Scotts Miracle-Gro’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.31 EPS. Scotts Miracle-Gro has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.500- EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Investors of record on Friday, August 22nd were issued a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 22nd. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s payout ratio is currently 347.37%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Mark J. Scheiwer bought 1,790 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $61.32 per share, for a total transaction of $109,762.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 10,130 shares in the company, valued at approximately $621,171.60. This trade represents a 21.46% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Hagedorn Partnership, L.P. sold 56,633 shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro stock in a transaction on Friday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.02, for a total value of $3,569,011.66. Following the sale, the director directly owned 13,217,641 shares in the company, valued at $832,975,735.82. The trade was a 0.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 25.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.