The Toro Company (TTC) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.38 on April 14th

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, March 18th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.38 per share on Monday, April 14th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st.

Toro has raised its dividend by an average of 10.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 21 consecutive years. Toro has a dividend payout ratio of 32.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Toro to earn $4.67 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.52 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.5%.

Toro Stock Down 2.1 %

TTC stock opened at $73.29 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.81. Toro has a one year low of $71.23 and a one year high of $100.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.28 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $79.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $81.98.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on TTC. Northland Securities raised Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. DA Davidson lowered their target price on Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Northland Capmk raised shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Raymond James reduced their price target on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.75.

Toro declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to buyback 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

About Toro

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.