The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) to Issue $0.36 Quarterly Dividend

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, September 17th, NASDAQ reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of 0.36 per share on Friday, October 11th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th.

Toro has increased its dividend payment by an average of 10.9% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 20 consecutive years. Toro has a payout ratio of 31.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Toro to earn $4.59 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.44 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 31.4%.

Toro Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of TTC stock traded down $0.99 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $85.37. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 808,871 shares, compared to its average volume of 887,910. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $90.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $89.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. Toro has a 12-month low of $77.15 and a 12-month high of $102.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.87 billion, a PE ratio of 34.13 and a beta of 0.69.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.23 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.26 billion. Toro had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.95 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Toro will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Toro

In other Toro news, CEO Richard M. Olson sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.19, for a total transaction of $1,903,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 17,913 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,705,138.47. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.62% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on TTC shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. DA Davidson cut their target price on shares of Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Toro in a report on Friday, September 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.33.

Toro Company 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.