Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Sells 300 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System reduced its stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 1.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 28,500 shares of the company’s stock after selling 300 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Toro were worth $2,283,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Leavell Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Toro in the 4th quarter valued at about $227,000. Savant Capital LLC raised its holdings in Toro by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 3,293 shares of the company’s stock valued at $264,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP raised its holdings in Toro by 134.6% in the 4th quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 33,312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,668,000 after acquiring an additional 19,112 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in Toro by 1,395.2% in the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 35,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,834,000 after acquiring an additional 33,010 shares during the period. Finally, Kingsview Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Toro in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,779,000. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:TTC opened at $80.50 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $82.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $84.75. The Toro Company has a 12-month low of $76.95 and a 12-month high of $100.93. The firm has a market cap of $8.10 billion, a PE ratio of 20.07 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates 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 posted $0.71 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. This is a positive change from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.89%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.91%.

Toro announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to buyback 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Raymond James lowered their price target 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 issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price 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.