The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Stake Boosted by D.B. Root & Company LLC

D.B. Root & Company LLC boosted its holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 7.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 6,519 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 438 shares during the period. D.B. Root & Company LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $522,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 112.1% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. lifted its stake in Toro by 850.0% in the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 765 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Toro by 15.5% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Toro by 534.8% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after acquiring an additional 1,123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Bay Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 87.2% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 1,657 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,000 after acquiring an additional 772 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Raymond James reduced their target price on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.75.

Toro Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE:TTC opened at $84.16 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $8.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.99 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.81. The Toro Company has a 1 year low of $76.95 and a 1 year high of $100.93. The business has a fifty day moving average of $83.18 and a 200-day moving average of $86.13.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95. Toro had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. Toro’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were given a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.81%. This is an increase from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is 37.91%.

Toro declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Toro Profile

The Toro Company designs, manufactures, markets, and sells professional turf maintenance equipment and services. It operates through two segments: Professional and Residential. The Professional segment offers turf and landscape equipment products, including sports fields and grounds mowing and maintenance equipment, golf course mowing and maintenance equipment, landscape contractor mowing equipment, landscape creation and renovation equipment, and other maintenance equipment; rental, specialty, and underground construction equipment, such as horizontal directional drills, walk and ride trenchers, stand-on skid steers, vacuum excavators, stump grinders, turf renovation products, asset locators, pipe rehabilitation solutions, materials handling equipment, and other after-market tools; and snow and ice management equipment, such as snowplows, as well as stand-on snow and ice removal equipment, such as snowplow, snow brush, and snow thrower attachments, salt and sand spreaders, and related parts and accessories for light and medium duty trucks, utility task vehicles, skid steers, and front-end loaders.