SMG

Scotts Miracle-Gro

Materials · fiscal year ending 2025-09-30

Through the investors’ lenses

3 of 4 cleared4 of 7 criteria

Each of these investors has said in public what they look at before buying. Click a name to see how this company measures up — a tick where it passes one of their tests, a cross where it does not.

Warren Buffett 2/2

Measure	SMG	Checked against
Owner earnings	$110.50m	positive	✓
Return on equity	—	US median 2.8%	—
Debt to equity	—	US median 0.57x	—
Operating margin	10.5%	US median 3.1%	✓

Passes 2 of 2. These are the measures Warren Buffett published, applied to Scotts Miracle-Gro’s own figures — their criteria, not their view of this company. What he looks at, and why →

Benjamin Graham 0/3

Measure	SMG	Checked against
Current ratio	1.27x	2.00x published	✗
Long-term debt to working capital	10.22x	1.00x published	✗
Positive earnings, ten years running	1 yr	10 published	✗

Passes 0 of 3. These are the measures Benjamin Graham published, applied to Scotts Miracle-Gro’s own figures — their criteria, not their view of this company. What he looks at, and why →

Joel Greenblatt 1/1

Measure	SMG	Checked against
Return on capital employed	20.5%	US median 5.1%	✓

Passes 1 of 1. These are the measures Joel Greenblatt published, applied to Scotts Miracle-Gro’s own figures — their criteria, not their view of this company. What he looks at, and why →

Peter Lynch 1/1

Measure	SMG	Checked against
Debt to equity	—	US median 0.57x	—
Net margin	4.3%	US median 2.0%	✓

Passes 1 of 1. These are the measures Peter Lynch published, applied to Scotts Miracle-Gro’s own figures — their criteria, not their view of this company. What he looks at, and why →

Basis	Payout	Why
GAAP earnings	106.9%	why A single year's earnings for a commodity producer can be several times the through-cycle average. This ratio computed in a trough looks alarming and in a peak looks trivial; neither describes whether the dividend is affordable across a cycle.
Operating cash flow	41.6%	why Before capital spending.
Free cash flow	56.3%	why Nets out the capital spending producers cut in downturns — so it flatters a trough year.

Spread between highest and lowest: 65.3 percentage points. Same filings, different denominators.

Coverage rating 56 / 100 — Tight. ? Peer standing 20/50Direction 30/30Stability 5/20

Free cash flow payout, last 6 years

Fiscal year	Payout
2025-09-30	56.3%
2024-09-30	25.9%
2023-09-30	34.0%
2021-09-30	86.9%
2020-09-30	83.0%
2019-09-30	67.5%

Coverage worsened sharply this year, 25.9% to 56.3%, after no clear trend before it. One year is not a trend, but it is worth knowing which direction the last one moved.

40% of the 47 materials here pay out more.

The arithmetic

GAAP earnings — dividends declared per share $2.64 ÷ diluted EPS $2.47
Operating cash flow — dividends paid $154m ÷ operating cash flow $371m
Free cash flow — dividends paid $154m ÷ (operating cash flow $371m − capex $97.4m)

Where the figures came from

10-K filed 2025-11-25 · accession 0000825542-25-000022

Every one is public at sec.gov and free to check. That is the point — you should not have to take our word for any of it.

Computed by an open pipeline reading SEC XBRL directly. If any number here looks wrong to you, tell us — that is more useful to us than agreement.

What the free cash flow payout ratio measures, and where every company here sits on it.

Also on: uncovered on earnings, covered on the basis that applies · rated tight · when it files.

Who else looks like this

Every figure above is computed from Scotts Miracle-Gro’s own filing, and every company here is measured the same way. Screen all of them on any of these twelve measures, or on the rules four investors published — free, and nothing you screen leaves your browser.

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