ScottsMiracle-Gro Raises FY EPS Guidance to $4.30-$4.45 on Strong Q3
SMG sits 34% above its 52-week low of $52.
Summary
ScottsMiracle-Gro delivered Q3 net sales of $1.17 billion, up 1% year-over-year, and raised its full-year non-GAAP adjusted EPS guidance to $4.30-$4.45 from $4.15-$4.35. Non-GAAP adjusted EPS of $2.82 beat expectations, driven by strong operating performance at the Bonnie Plants joint venture and a lower tax rate. Gross margin contracted 90-100 basis points due to higher freight and commodity costs from the Iran conflict, but the company reaffirmed its full-year adjusted gross margin target of at least 32%. The balance sheet improved with net leverage falling to 3.78x from 4.15x a year ago. This follows the CEO transition announced in early July, with the Hagedorn Partnership publicly backing new CEO Nate Baxter. The raised guidance and margin resilience signal confidence in the SMG 2.0 strategy despite cost headwinds.
At the time of this announcement, SMG was trading at $69.87 on NYSE in the Trade & Services sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $4.3B. The 52-week trading range was $52.00 to $75.34. This news item was assessed with positive market sentiment and an importance score of 8 out of 10. Source: GlobeNewswire.