Long Road Investment Counsel LLC Trims Stock Holdings in The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG)

Long Road Investment Counsel LLC trimmed its position in The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 11,375 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 175 shares during the quarter. Long Road Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Scotts Miracle-Gro were worth $755,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro in the third quarter valued at about $243,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. bought a new position in Scotts Miracle-Gro during the third quarter valued at approximately $227,000. Metis Global Partners LLC bought a new position in Scotts Miracle-Gro during the third quarter valued at approximately $218,000. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Scotts Miracle-Gro during the third quarter valued at approximately $220,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro during the third quarter valued at approximately $421,000. 74.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Scotts Miracle-Gro news, EVP Christopher Hagedorn sold 3,568 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.50, for a total transaction of $255,112.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 55,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,001,998. The trade was a 5.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction 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 company’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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 88,310 shares in the company, valued at $6,319,463.60. This trade represents a 61.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 159,937 shares of company stock worth $11,379,275 in the last 90 days. 25.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on SMG shares. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $85.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $77.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $78.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, 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 price objective for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Scotts Miracle-Gro currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $74.00.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Price Performance

Scotts Miracle-Gro stock opened at $61.29 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -127.67 and a beta of 1.79. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has a 1 year low of $55.68 and a 1 year high of $93.90. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $66.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $73.17.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The basic materials company reported ($0.89) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 period last year, the company posted ($1.45) earnings per share. Research analysts expect 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, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.31%. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -550.00%.

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.