Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Sells 4,523 Shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lessened its holdings in The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) by 5.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 73,983 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 4,523 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC owned about 0.13% of Scotts Miracle-Gro worth $4,908,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SMG. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Scotts Miracle-Gro in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in Scotts Miracle-Gro in the second quarter valued at about $29,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in Scotts Miracle-Gro by 427.0% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 332 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 269 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro by 83.6% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 369 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro during the third quarter valued at about $44,000. Institutional investors own 74.07% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO James Hagedorn sold 18,368 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.68, for a total transaction of $1,390,090.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 87,426 shares in the company, valued at $6,616,399.68. The trade was a 17.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Hagedorn Partnership, L.P. sold 28,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.91, for a total value of $2,125,480.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,553,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,028,866,984.34. This trade represents a 0.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 58,227 shares of company stock worth $4,410,268 over the last quarter. 25.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on SMG shares. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Scotts Miracle-Gro in a research note on Monday, December 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $72.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group cut their price target on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $77.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Truist Financial cut their price target on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $90.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Scotts Miracle-Gro from $85.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Scotts Miracle-Gro has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $75.83.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Stock Performance

Shares of SMG stock opened at $71.26 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $4.10 billion, a P/E ratio of -103.27 and a beta of 1.73. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $71.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $74.63. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has a fifty-two week low of $53.43 and a fifty-two week high of $93.90.

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The basic materials company reported ($0.89) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.23) by $0.34. Scotts Miracle-Gro had a negative return on equity of 44.97% and a negative net margin of 0.98%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($1.45) earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company will post 3.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a $0.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.71%. Scotts Miracle-Gro’s payout ratio is currently -382.61%.

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.