Gerald Volas, a director at The Scotts Miracle Grow Company (SMG), recently bought 6,000 shares. The buy increased his stake by 1,376 percent, and came to a total price of just under $1.03 million.
This marks the first insider buy of the past three years. Over the past three years, company insiders from major owners to directors to executives have been exclusive sellers of shares.
Company insiders of the consumer lawn and garden products company own 28 percent of shares.
The stock is now trading flat over the past year, after shedding nearly one-third of its value in recent weeks, a move that may have sparked the first insider buy at the company in a long time.
The recent decline has brough the company’s valuation back to a reasonable level under 20 times earnings. Revenue has been down 17 percent over the past year, so things aren’t firing on all cylinders, but this insider buy may be a hint of a turnaround, especially given the speedy decline in shares.
Action to take: Investors may like shares, which pay a 1.6 percent dividend yield here, and one that has grown in the past year with room for further increases.
Traders may want to bet on a rebound with a trade like the March $200 call. Last going for about $4.80, the trade has plenty of time for a rebound in shares to play out, and is still well under the prior 52-week high in shares of $254.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the company mentioned here, but may trade after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any of the companies mentioned in this article.