Financial Advocates Investment Management Raises Stock Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Financial Advocates Investment Management boosted its holdings in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 35.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,330 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,134 shares during the quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management’s holdings in Toro were worth $347,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Nuance Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Toro in the third quarter worth $29,146,000. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Toro by 71.2% during the 3rd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 217,739 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,885,000 after acquiring an additional 90,538 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its stake in shares of Toro by 945.5% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 82,111 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,577,000 after purchasing an additional 74,257 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its stake in shares of Toro by 6,995.4% in the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 74,005 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,418,000 after purchasing an additional 72,962 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its position in shares of Toro by 31.5% during the third quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 298,150 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,859,000 after purchasing an additional 71,431 shares during the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Toro Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:TTC opened at $80.17 on Monday. The Toro Company has a 1-year low of $76.95 and a 1-year high of $100.93. The company’s fifty day moving average is $83.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $85.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.99 and a beta of 0.72.

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

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.90%. This is a positive change from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s payout ratio is currently 37.91%.

Toro announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to repurchase 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Raymond James cut their price objective on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Three 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, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target 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.