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Scotts Miracle-Gro

SMG on NYSE. Scotts Miracle-gro sells lawn and garden products to homeowners and retailers. Market value $2.9bn.

Watch this stockFree. We tell you when something changes.

Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Some use the latest annual report instead, as marked. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to September 2025.

Should I look at this?

Not a fit for our list right now

Why it could be worth it

What to watch out for

See Materials stocks that passed both tests

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

Compare with another stock

Cash yield
past 12 months to June 2026
9.0%high

For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $8.95 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.

Price to profit
annual report to September 2025
14.1×fair

You pay 14.1 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.

Return on capital
five annual reports to September 2025
9.3%five-year median

Each dollar kept in the business earns 9 cents a year. Above 10 is good.

Quality score: 36 of 100. Price score: 76 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$50.52 a share, 5% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $47.90 to $75.34.

Dividend: 5.2% a year

Paid every year for at least 5 years

Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

0.2
-0.2
0.4
0.6
0.3
0.3
2021202220232024202512 monthsto Jun '26
Revenue
$4.9bn$3.9bn$3.6bn$3.6bn$3.4bn
Operating margin
14.7%-11.1%-4.9%5.9%10.5%
Debt to equity
2.3020.31n/an/an/a
Shares outstanding
0.06bn0.06bn0.06bn0.06bn0.06bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positive4 of 5 years
  • Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
  • Financial strength (Piotroski)7 of 9
  • Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
  • DebtUnknown
  • Revenue growth, five yearsShrinking, 3.7% a year
  • Buying back its own sharesNo, 5% more shares since 2021

The quarter to June 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Sales: $1.2 billion last quarter, about the same as a year ago.
  • Profit: $112 million, down 25% on a year ago.
  • Spare cash over the past 12 months: $263 million, up from $245 million.
  • 1% more shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit less of the company.
  • Debt is $2.1 billion more than cash, down from $2.2 billion a year ago.
  • Sales grew on a year ago in 3 of the last 4 quarters.
Sales by quarter
Sales by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$415m
December 2024$367m
March 2025$1.4bn
June 2025$1.2bn
September 2025$497m
December 2025$354m
March 2026$1.5bn
June 2026$1.2bn
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024Not reported
December 2024-$70m
March 2025$218m
June 2025$149m
September 2025-$152m
December 2025-$125m
March 2026$239m
June 2026$112m

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
n/a
Last annual report (10-K)
25 November 2025
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
4 November 2026

Who owns it

5 long-term investors we follow own it, down from 7 last quarter. 463 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26

Sold out this quarter

Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

3 investors own more than 5%.

  • James Hagedorn
    Insider or founder
    at least 23.0%−0.1 pts
    (filed with 5 related holders)
    Since 9 December 2025
    What they said

    Item 4 of the Schedule 13D is hereby amended and supplemented as follows: The information set forth in Item 5 and Item 6 of this Amendment No. 9 is incorporated by reference to this Item 4. On September 16, 2025, the Partnership, on behalf of Mrs. Hagedorn Littlefield, entered…

    Read the filing
  • FMR LLC
    Passive investor
    at least 7.0%
    (filed with 1 related holder)
    Since 30 June 2026
  • EARNEST PARTNERS LLC
    Passive investor
    6.5%
    Since 30 June 2025
  • Sold down below 5%
    Since 31 March 2025
  • The Vanguard Group
    Passive investor
    Sold down below 5%
    Since 13 March 2026

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

In the last 12 months, 1 insider bought $49,508 of shares on the open market. 3 sold $5m.

  • Kingdon Mark D
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    10 August 2026
    Shares
    831
    Price
    $61.65
    Value
    $51,227
  • Hagedorn Partnership, L.P.
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    3 August 2026
    Shares
    30,000
    Price
    $67.45
    Value
    $2m
  • Johnson Stephen L
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    30 July 2026
    Shares
    1,171
    Price
    $68.32
    Value
    $80,000
  • Scheiwer Mark J
    EVP, CFO & CAO
    Bought
    Date
    24 February 2026
    Shares
    693
    Price
    $71.44
    Value
    $49,508
  • Hagedorn Partnership, L.P.
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    12 February 2026
    Shares
    50,000
    Price
    $66.40
    Value
    $3m

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

What could go wrong

  • Sales have shrunk: 3.7% a year.
  • It owes more than it owns on paper (negative equity). Often that's from borrowing to buy back shares.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
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What a finished deep dive looks like

Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.