New Age Alpha Advisors LLC Takes $503,000 Position in The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG)

New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 7,578 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $503,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. raised its position in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 19.6% during the fourth quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 3,134 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $208,000 after purchasing an additional 514 shares in the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. RBF Capital LLC bought a new stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,601,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its position in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 1,033.4% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 364,045 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $31,563,000 after buying an additional 331,925 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 2.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 708,558 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $61,448,000 after buying an additional 14,730 shares in the last quarter. 74.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Brian E. Sandoval sold 1,513 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.86, for a total value of $99,646.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,039 shares in the company, valued at $858,748.54. The trade was a 10.40 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher Hagedorn sold 3,568 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.50, for a total value of $255,112.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 55,972 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,001,998. This represents a 5.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 159,937 shares of company stock worth $11,379,275 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 25.37% of the company's stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on SMG. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $77.00 to $72.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Scotts Miracle-Gro from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and decreased their price objective for the stock 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 note on Monday, December 9th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $72.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $80.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Truist Financial raised shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $72.33.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Price Performance

NYSE SMG traded down $4.80 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $53.17. 1,581,973 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 855,207. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has a 52-week low of $52.87 and a 52-week high of $93.90. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $62.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $72.05. The firm has a market cap of $3.06 billion, a PE ratio of -110.76 and a beta of 1.79.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The basic materials company reported ($0.89) earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 posted ($1.45) EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company will post 3.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Scotts Miracle-Gro's dividend payout ratio 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.