Head to Head Review: Scotts Miracle-Gro (SMG) & The Competition

Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) is one of 295 publicly-traded companies in the “Chemicals” industry, but how does it contrast to its rivals? We will compare Scotts Miracle-Gro to similar businesses based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and profitability.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Scotts Miracle-Gro and its rivals top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Scotts Miracle-Gro	$3.48 billion	$145.20 million	39.48
Scotts Miracle-Gro Competitors	$8.00 billion	$222.31 million	-0.72

Scotts Miracle-Gro’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than Scotts Miracle-Gro. Scotts Miracle-Gro is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Scotts Miracle-Gro and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Scotts Miracle-Gro	0	2	5	0	2.71
Scotts Miracle-Gro Competitors	3241	12199	14119	516	2.40

Scotts Miracle-Gro currently has a consensus target price of $74.80, suggesting a potential upside of 12.77%. As a group, “Chemicals” companies have a potential upside of 6.77%. Given Scotts Miracle-Gro’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Scotts Miracle-Gro is more favorable than its rivals.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

74.1% of Scotts Miracle-Gro shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.5% of shares of all “Chemicals” companies are owned by institutional investors. 24.4% of Scotts Miracle-Gro shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.9% of shares of all “Chemicals” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Scotts Miracle-Gro and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Scotts Miracle-Gro	3.16%	-77.42%	8.57%
Scotts Miracle-Gro Competitors	-59.66%	0.26%	-1.43%

Volatility and Risk

Scotts Miracle-Gro has a beta of 1.87, indicating that its share price is 87% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Scotts Miracle-Gro’s rivals have a beta of 0.93, indicating that their average share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Scotts Miracle-Gro pays an annual dividend of $2.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Scotts Miracle-Gro pays out 157.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Chemicals” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.1% and pay out 105.9% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Scotts Miracle-Gro beats its rivals on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

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. It offers hydroponic products that help users to grow plants, flowers, and vegetables using little or no soil; lighting systems and components for use in hydroponic and indoor gardening applications; insect, rodent, and weed control products for home areas; and non-selective weed killer products. The company sells its products under the Scotts, Turf Builder, EZ Seed, PatchMaster, Thick'R Lawn, GrubEx, EdgeGuard, Handy Green II, Miracle-Gro, LiquaFeed, Shake N Feed, Hyponex, Earthgro, Nature Scapes, Ortho, Miracle-Gro Performance Organics, Miracle-Gro Organic Choice, Whitney Farms, EcoScraps, Mother Earth, Botanicare, General Hydroponics, Cyco, Gavita, Agrolux, HydroLogic Purification System, Gro Pro, AeroGarden, Titan, Tomcat, Ortho Weed B Gon, Roundup, Groundclear, and Alchemist brands. It serves home centers, mass merchandisers, warehouse clubs, large hardware chains, independent hardware stores, nurseries, garden centers, e-commerce platforms, and food and drug stores, as well as indoor gardening and hydroponic distributors, retailers, and growers. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company was founded in 1868 and is headquartered in Marysville, Ohio.