Running Oak Capital LLC Boosts Stock Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Running Oak Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 8.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 155,654 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 12,377 shares during the period. Running Oak Capital LLC owned 0.15% of Toro worth $12,468,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its stake in Toro by 270.5% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 4,717 shares of the company’s stock worth $378,000 after purchasing an additional 3,444 shares during the last quarter. Curated Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in Toro by 42.7% during the fourth quarter. Curated Wealth Partners LLC now owns 7,463 shares of the company’s stock worth $598,000 after purchasing an additional 2,233 shares in the last quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC lifted its position in shares of Toro by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC now owns 6,519 shares of the company’s stock worth $522,000 after buying an additional 438 shares during the last quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Toro by 31.2% in the 4th quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 5,413 shares of the company’s stock valued at $447,000 after buying an additional 1,288 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wesbanco Bank Inc. grew its position in shares of Toro by 40.2% in the 4th quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 8,616 shares of the company’s stock valued at $690,000 after buying an additional 2,469 shares during the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Toro Stock Down 0.6 %

TTC stock opened at $86.01 on Friday. The Toro Company has a 12 month low of $76.95 and a 12 month high of $100.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The company has a market cap of $8.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.45 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $83.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $86.09.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.95. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. Toro had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.71 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is 37.91%.

Toro declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to repurchase 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board 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.