Toro (NYSE:TTC) Shares Down 5.9% – Here’s What Happened

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)’s share price was down 5.9% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $74.12 and last traded at $73.38. Approximately 273,490 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 69% from the average daily volume of 890,845 shares. The stock had previously closed at $78.01.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TTC has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com downgraded Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Raymond James reduced their price target on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Northland Securities raised shares of Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Northland Capmk upgraded shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Toro currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $91.75.

Toro Price Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average of $80.94 and a 200 day moving average of $83.59. 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 stock has a market cap of $7.39 billion, a PE ratio of 18.31 and a beta of 0.72.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. The business’s revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.71 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. This is an increase from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s payout ratio is currently 37.91%.

Toro declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to repurchase 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Toro by 45.5% during the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,031,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $563,207,000 after acquiring an additional 2,199,920 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Toro by 996,664.0% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 498,382 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,410,000 after purchasing an additional 498,332 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Toro during the 4th quarter worth $36,561,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in shares of Toro by 411.3% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 464,609 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,215,000 after purchasing an additional 373,736 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 693.0% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 414,961 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,238,000 after purchasing an additional 362,634 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.