The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (SMG) To Go Ex-Dividend on February 21st

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, January 27th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a dividend of 0.66 per share by the basic materials company on Friday, March 7th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st.

Scotts Miracle-Gro has increased its dividend by an average of 1.0% annually over the last three years. Scotts Miracle-Gro has a payout ratio of 63.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Scotts Miracle-Gro to earn $4.03 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 65.5%.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of SMG stock opened at $75.80 on Wednesday. Scotts Miracle-Gro has a 1 year low of $53.43 and a 1 year high of $93.90. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $71.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $74.66.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Scotts Miracle-Gro news, CEO James Hagedorn sold 18,368 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.68, for a total value of $1,390,090.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 87,426 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,616,399.68. The trade was a 17.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Hagedorn Partnership, L.P. sold 28,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.91, for a total transaction of $2,125,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,553,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,028,866,984.34. This represents a 0.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 58,227 shares of company stock valued at $4,410,268. Company insiders own 25.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on SMG. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of 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. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of 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. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro in a research note on Monday, December 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $72.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Scotts Miracle-Gro currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $75.83.

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.