Scotts Miracle-Gro Shares Gain After Upgrade

NEW YORK (AP) — Sliding costs of a key commodity and "healthy" sales growth this season will boost earnings of Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., an analyst said Monday, upgrading the stock. Shares rose more than 3 percent immediately after trading opened.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Connie Maneaty raised her rating to "Outperform" from "Market Perform" and hiked profit estimates for this fiscal year and 2010 after a meeting with the fertilizer company's management earlier this month.

Maneaty tacked on 8 cents per share for her earnings estimate for the year ending in September to $2.38 per share, saying the company's executives "feel good about May" sales of Ortho, Smith & Hawken and the namesake brand. May accounts for 20 percent of its U.S. consumer sales data. Maneaty said she felt "healthy" sales growth would continue, up 2 percent for the fiscal year. ...