Head to Head Analysis: Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (NASDAQ:CRESY) & Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG)

Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (NASDAQ:CRESY) and Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. and Scotts Miracle-Gro, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A.	0	1	0	0	2.00
Scotts Miracle-Gro	0	4	4	0	2.50

Scotts Miracle-Gro has a consensus price target of $72.83, suggesting a potential upside of 26.50%. Given Scotts Miracle-Gro’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Scotts Miracle-Gro is more favorable than Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A..

Insider and Institutional Ownership

12.9% of Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.1% of Scotts Miracle-Gro shares are held by institutional investors. 36.2% of Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 24.4% of Scotts Miracle-Gro shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. and Scotts Miracle-Gro’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A.	17.44%	7.21%	3.09%
Scotts Miracle-Gro	3.27%	-79.61%	8.53%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. and Scotts Miracle-Gro”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A.	$887.72 million	0.78	$96.15 million	$2.22	4.92
Scotts Miracle-Gro	$3.41 billion	0.98	$145.20 million	$1.79	32.16

Scotts Miracle-Gro has higher revenue and earnings than Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A.. Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Scotts Miracle-Gro, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. pays an annual dividend of $0.61 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.6%. Scotts Miracle-Gro pays an annual dividend of $2.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. pays out 27.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Scotts Miracle-Gro pays out 147.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk and Volatility

Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. has a beta of 0.71, suggesting that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Scotts Miracle-Gro has a beta of 1.84, suggesting that its share price is 84% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Scotts Miracle-Gro beats Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A.

Cresud Sociedad Anónima, Comercial, Inmobiliaria, Financiera y Agropecuaria, an agricultural company, engages in the production of agricultural commodities in Brazil and other Latin American countries. The company operates through Agricultural Business, and Business Urban Properties and Investments segments. It is also involved in the management, development, and ownership of shopping malls, office buildings, and hotels; sale of grain derivatives, such as flour and oil; production and sale of crops, such as soybean, sugarcane, wheat, corn, oilseed, and sunflower, as well as sorghum and peanuts; and breeding, purchasing, and/or fattening of cattle for sale to slaughterhouses and supermarkets. In addition, it leases its farms to third parties for agriculture, cattle breeding, and seed production; and offers agricultural services. The company was incorporated in 1936 and is headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

About Scotts Miracle-Gro

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, markets, and sells products for lawn, garden care, and indoor and hydroponic gardening in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: U.S. Consumer, Hawthorne, and Other. The company provides lawn care products, comprising lawn fertilizers, grass seed products, spreaders, and other durable products, as well as lawn-related weed, pest, and disease control products; and gardening and landscape products, which include water-soluble and continuous-release plant foods, potting mixes, garden soils, mulches and ground cover products, plant-related pest and disease control products, organic garden products, and live goods and seeding solutions. It offers hydroponic products that help users to grow plants, flowers, and vegetables using little or no soil; lighting systems and components for use in hydroponic and indoor gardening applications; insect, rodent, and weed control products for home areas; and non-selective weed killer products. The company sells its products under the Scotts, Turf Builder, EZ Seed, PatchMaster, Thick'R Lawn, GrubEx, EdgeGuard, Handy Green II, Miracle-Gro, LiquaFeed, Shake N Feed, Hyponex, Earthgro, Nature Scapes, Ortho, Miracle-Gro Performance Organics, Miracle-Gro Organic Choice, Whitney Farms, EcoScraps, Mother Earth, Botanicare, General Hydroponics, Cyco, Gavita, Agrolux, HydroLogic Purification System, Gro Pro, AeroGarden, Titan, Tomcat, Ortho Weed B Gon, Roundup, Groundclear, and Alchemist brands. It serves home centers, mass merchandisers, warehouse clubs, large hardware chains, independent hardware stores, nurseries, garden centers, e-commerce platforms, and food and drug stores, as well as indoor gardening and hydroponic distributors, retailers, and growers. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company was founded in 1868 and is headquartered in Marysville, Ohio.