The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.36

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, September 17th, NASDAQ reports. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of 0.36 per share on Friday, October 11th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th.

Toro has increased its dividend payment by an average of 10.9% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 20 consecutive years. Toro has a payout ratio of 31.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Toro to earn $4.59 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.44 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 31.4%.

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of TTC stock opened at $85.37 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $90.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $89.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.94. Toro has a 1 year low of $77.15 and a 1 year high of $102.00. The firm has a market cap of $8.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.74 and a beta of 0.69.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.26 billion. Toro had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.95 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Toro will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Toro

In other Toro news, CEO Richard M. Olson sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.19, for a total value of $1,903,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 17,913 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,705,138.47. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 1.62% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TTC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Toro in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Finally, DA Davidson lowered their price target on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $93.33.

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.