JPMorgan Chase & Co. Reduces Stock Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced its stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 15.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,118,509 shares of the company’s stock after selling 205,137 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Toro were worth $97,008,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. boosted its stake in Toro by 24.5% in the 3rd quarter. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. now owns 144,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,527,000 after purchasing an additional 28,453 shares during the period. PEAK6 Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Toro in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,248,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its stake in Toro by 6,995.4% during the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 74,005 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,418,000 after acquiring an additional 72,962 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its holdings in Toro by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 278,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,172,000 after acquiring an additional 14,950 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Toro in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,261,000. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TTC opened at $79.07 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $83.65 and its 200 day moving average is $87.33. The stock has a market cap of $8.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.75 and a beta of 0.70. The Toro Company has a 1-year low of $77.15 and a 1-year high of $100.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95. Toro had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.71 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be issued a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. This is an increase from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s payout ratio is currently 37.91%.

Toro declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to buyback 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on TTC shares. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of Toro in a report on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Raymond James decreased their price objective 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, DA Davidson dropped their target price on shares of Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.75.

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.