The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Shares Acquired by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,447 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 641 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $726,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in Toro by 112.1% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its stake in shares of Toro by 850.0% in the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,000 after acquiring an additional 765 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 22.4% during the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 908 shares of the company’s stock worth $85,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in Toro during the second quarter valued at $94,000. Finally, 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 purchasing an additional 143 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TTC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. DA Davidson reduced their price objective on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Robert W. Baird reduced 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. StockNews.com raised Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Toro in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Toro has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.33.

Toro Price Performance

NYSE:TTC opened at $81.44 on Thursday. 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 Toro Company has a 52 week low of $77.15 and a 52 week high of $102.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $84.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $88.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.36 billion, a PE ratio of 21.38 and a beta of 0.70.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.95. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 25.94% and a net margin of 8.89%. Toro’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 23rd. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.87%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is currently 39.90%.

Toro announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to repurchase 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.