1. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 27
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) manufactures, markets, and sells products for lawn, garden car, and indoor and hydroponic gardening. It is based in Marysville, Ohio.
On May 1, analysts at Stifel upgraded The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) from Hold to Buy.
Shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) were trading at $68.87 on May 1. The average price target placed on the stock by analysts is $79.57, giving it an upside potential of 15.5%. Analysts see the stock as a Moderate Buy since it has two Buy ratings and five Hold ratings.
Out of the 943 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey in the fourth quarter, 27 hedge funds were long The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG). Their total stake value was $153.7 million.
Madison Funds, managed by Madison Investment Management, mentioned The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) in its fourth-quarter 2022 investor letter. Here’s what the firm said:
“Stock selection was the poorest for us in this sector. Two stocks in particular – Hain Celestial (HAIN) and The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) – while big winners for us in 2020 and 2021, hurt the portfolio in 2022.
While both companies were so-called COVID beneficiaries (businesses that benefited from consumers staying home and spending on their homes during COVID), we felt they possessed certain additional drivers that would maintain their fundamentals into 2022 and beyond.
Scott’s Miracle-Gro is arguably one of the great American franchises. The brand is synonymous with lawn care and pest control, has a dominant market share (~60%) with historically-impressive ~30% cash flow margins, and has the country’s largest Cannabis supply business. Scotts’ core business saw a significant windfall during COVID lockdowns. Lawn and garden care is not a growth business, and SMG dominance does not allow for much incremental gain in market share. However, our thesis was that even in a reopening scenario where lawn and garden businesses would revert to the mean, the cannabis market was poised for years of growth as more states legalized recreational use.
What we missed was the highly inefficient structure of the U.S. cannabis market. Currently, California, Colorado, and Michigan have the biggest and most mature markets. However, over the course of the last few years, several very large states and regions have voted to legalize recreational use, including New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The fly in the ointment has been Oklahoma, which is a medical marijuana state. Although recreational use is still prohibited, licenses to grow the crop were granted in Laissez Faire fashion to anyone willing to buy one. Oklahoma began to grow and cultivate the crop far in excess of their medical marijuana demand. That excess supply bled into grey markets across the country, devastating pricing for growers in other states. This glut put a near complete stop to capital spending on grow operations. With no new or incremental facilities coming on, Scotts’ Hawthorne business was cut in half from its peak in F21. This, of course, had a devastating effect on the stock.”
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