PowerRatings Stock Spotlight: Scotts Miracle-Gro

My parents are serious gardeners. For as long as I can remember, I recall growing up with a garage full of equipment, bags of plant foods and fertilizers, and various other accouterments of the gardening hobby. I later learned that I was not alone with eccentric parents with an unusual past time. Gardening is an extremely popular endeavor across North America and the world.

Our PowerRatings Stock Spotlight this week focuses on a company, which I remember from my youth, catering to this army of hobbyist and professional gardeners. The company is Scotts Miracle-Gro (SGM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), the world's largest marketer of branded consumer lawn care and garden products, as well as a full range of products for the professional horticulturist.

While looking at this firm for potential investment, my first thought was to check the Long Term PowerRatings of the stock. The company has earned a 5 ranking which is directly in the middle of the scale. For those of you unfamiliar with our PowerRatings stock picking system, it is an easy to use, dynamic stock picking tool based on 13 years of extensive, statistically significant studies, across most market environments. Our research has clearly shown that stocks that earn a 10 rating have an 81% chance of being higher one year later. Those possessing a 9 rating have a 79.1% chance of trading higher one year later. In this volatile, uncertain market environment, allow Long Term PowerRatings to assist you in building a profitable and safe portfolio.

Scotts Miracle-Gro was started in 1868 by O.M. Scott as a premium seed company in the United States. The firm quickly expanded to include a grass seed business for homeowners. The company continued to thrive into the 1960's when it introduced a multi step process or program of Scott products for lawns. This program offered guaranteed results to the homeowner further solidifying Scotts as a leader with top notch products. In the 1970's the company moved more into the professional niche offering golf courses, commercial wholesalers and landscapers services via its Pro Turf division.

During the early 1990's, the company moved into the United Kingdom. Scotts changed its name to Scotts Miracle-Gro in 2005 to better reflect its two leading brands. The company currently boasts $3 billion dollars in world wide sales with more than 6000 employees. They just increased the full fiscal year forecast. The results through May were very strong with sales being up 17% and the company is poised to continue the good performance throughout the year. Technically, shares are channeling between $33.00 and $38.00/share, Price is above the 50 and 200-day SMA's and have been slightly uptrending since May 11.

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David Goodboy is Vice President of Business Development for a New York City based multi-strategy fund.