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William Blair Affirms Buy Stance as Scotts Miracle-Gro Co (SMG) Touts Cannabis Opportunity with Reclassification

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) is one of the best fertilizer stocks to invest in. On December 12, William Blair analyst Jon Andersen reiterated a Buy rating on Scotts Miracle-Gro Co (NYSE: SMG), impressed by the company’s 2026 guidance.

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The company has already hinted at consumer sales growth in the low single digits that should lead to expansion in gross margin and a leverage ratio in the 3s. The projections are achievable with potential for further upside, particularly in gross margin improvements. The analysts are also confident the company will reach EBITDA of $700 million by 2028, on the back of sales growth of 2%-3% and an EBITDA margin of 20%.

Meanwhile, on December 18, the company echoed its support for President Donald Trump’s executive order focused on rescheduling cannabis from a Schedule 1 to Schedule III drug. The rescheduling is expected to strengthen the regulated cannabis industry and contribute about $100 billion to the economy. Under the new classification, companies are to pay tax rates aligned with those of other American businesses.

Additionally, the rescheduling will benefit ScottsMiracle-Gro’s Hawthorne Gardening Company subsidiary. The unit supplies nutrients, light, and other products to legal cannabis growing operations. While the unit has experienced declining capital spending from cannabis companies, it will benefit from the rescheduling of cannabis.

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) is a leading manufacturer and marketer of branded consumer products for lawn and garden care, offering fertilizers, pesticides, seeds, and gardening supplies for homeowners, as well as a significant business in hydroponic growing supplies.

While we acknowledge the potential of SMG to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than SMG and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: Top 10 Materials Stocks to Buy According to Analysts and 10 Best Organic Food and Farming Stocks to Buy Now.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

The $250 Trillion AI Hype is Real. A few years from now, you’ll probably wish you’d bought this stock.

When Jeff Bezos said that one breakthrough technology would shape Amazon’s destiny, even Wall Street’s biggest analysts were caught off guard.

Fast forward a year and Amazon’s new CEO Andy Jassy described generative AI as a “once-in-a-lifetime” technology that is already being used across Amazon to reinvent customer experiences.

At the 8th Future Investment Initiative conference, Elon Musk predicted that by 2040 there would be at least 10 billion humanoid robots, with each priced between $20,000 and $25,000.

Do the math. According to Musk, this technology could be worth $250 trillion by 2040.

Put another way, that’s roughly equal to:

  • 175 Teslas
  • 107 Amazons
  • 140 Metas
  • 84 Googles
  • 65 Microsofts
  • And 55 Nvidias

And here’s the wild part — this $250 trillion wave isn’t tied to one company, but to an entire ecosystem of AI innovators set to reshape the global economy.

It’s a leap so massive, it could reshape how businesses, governments, and consumers operate worldwide.

Even if that $250 trillion figure sounds ambitious, major firms like PwC and McKinsey still see AI unlocking multi-trillion-dollar potential.

How could anything be worth that much?

The answer lies in a breakthrough so powerful it’s redefining how humanity works, learns, and creates.

And this breakthrough has already set off a frenzy among hedge funds and Wall Street’s top investors.

What most investors don’t realize is that one under-owned company holds the key to this $250 trillion revolution.

In fact, Verge argues this company’s supercheap AI technology should concern rivals.

Before I reveal the details, let’s talk about how some of the richest people on the planet are positioning themselves.

  • Bill Gates sees artificial intelligence as the “biggest technological advance in my lifetime,” more transformative than the internet or personal computer, capable of improving healthcare, education, and addressing climate change.
  • Larry Ellison — through Oracle, is spending billions on Nvidia chips and partnering with Cohere to embed generative AI across Oracle’s cloud and apps.
  • Warren Buffett — not known for tech hype — says this breakthrough could have a ‘hugely beneficial social impact.

When billionaires from Silicon Valley to Wall Street line up behind the same idea — you know it’s worth paying attention to.

Even as we admire what Tesla, Nvidia, Alphabet, and Microsoft have built, we believe an even greater opportunity lies elsewhere…

But the real story isn’t Nvidia — it’s a much smaller company quietly improving the critical technology that makes this entire revolution possible.

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