Everence Capital Management Inc. Takes $208,000 Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 2,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lindenwold Advisors INC increased its stake in Toro by 2.8% during the third quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 4,612 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank raised its holdings in Toro by 1.4% in the second quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 10,060 shares of the company’s stock valued at $941,000 after buying an additional 136 shares during the period. CWM LLC lifted its position in 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 buying an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Toro by 1.0% during the third quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC now owns 15,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,318,000 after buying an additional 146 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in shares of Toro by 7.1% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 2,366 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,000 after acquiring an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:TTC opened at $79.23 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $83.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $86.84. The Toro Company has a 52-week low of $77.15 and a 52-week high of $100.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The company has a market capitalization of $8.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.80 and a beta of 0.72.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.95. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. Toro had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that The Toro Company will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 23rd. This is a positive change from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.91%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.