Southeast Asset Advisors LLC Reduces Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Southeast Asset Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 10.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 29,630 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,344 shares during the quarter. Southeast Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $2,373,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Toro by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 15,298 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,225,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. boosted its stake in Toro by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. now owns 11,473 shares of the company’s stock worth $923,000 after buying an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC grew its holdings in Toro by 30.2% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 547 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. Northwest Financial Advisors increased its stake in shares of Toro by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Northwest Financial Advisors now owns 6,945 shares of the company’s stock worth $556,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Savant Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 3,293 shares of the company’s stock worth $264,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of TTC stock opened at $65.63 on Monday. The Toro Company has a one year low of $63.71 and a one year 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. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $77.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $81.47. The firm has a market cap of $6.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.37 and a beta of 0.72.

Toro declared 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. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.32%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.87%.

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.