New York Life Investment Management LLC Sells 1,916 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

New York Life Investment Management LLC lessened its holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 15.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,867 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,916 shares during the quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $870,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Toro by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,959,875 shares of the company’s stock valued at $169,639,000 after buying an additional 29,105 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Toro by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,187,550 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,123,000 after buying an additional 60,068 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in Toro by 11.7% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 618,986 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,685,000 after buying an additional 64,660 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Toro by 996,664.0% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 498,382 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,410,000 after buying an additional 498,332 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuance Investments LLC bought a new position in Toro in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $29,146,000. Institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Stock Performance

NYSE:TTC opened at $77.30 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $81.45 and a 200-day moving average of $83.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.28 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. The Toro Company has a twelve month low of $76.95 and a twelve month high of $100.93.

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

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

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.97%. This is a positive change from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s payout ratio is currently 37.91%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TTC has been the subject of several analyst reports. Northland Capmk upgraded shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Raymond James lowered their price target on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Northland Securities upgraded shares of Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $93.75.

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.