Prudential Financial Inc. Acquires 71,452 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Prudential Financial Inc. grew its holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 211.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 105,202 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 71,452 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Toro were worth $8,517,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. PEAK6 Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Toro during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,248,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Toro by 6,995.4% during the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 74,005 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,418,000 after buying an additional 72,962 shares during the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Toro by 101.6% during the 3rd quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 13,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,127,000 after buying an additional 6,550 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Toro by 294.4% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 24,652 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,975,000 after buying an additional 18,401 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP raised its holdings in Toro by 111.4% in the 4th quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 51,945 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,161,000 after acquiring an additional 27,376 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on TTC shares. Raymond James reduced their price objective on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 20th. Northland Capmk raised Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Toro has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.75.

Toro Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE TTC opened at $73.29 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.28 and a beta of 0.70. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $79.00 and its 200 day moving average is $81.97. The Toro Company has a 52 week low of $71.23 and a 52 week high of $100.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.81.

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 14th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is 38.87%.

Toro announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are 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.