Entropy Technologies LP Grows Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Entropy Technologies LP lifted its stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 134.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 33,312 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 19,112 shares during the quarter. Entropy Technologies LP’s holdings in Toro were worth $2,668,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in Toro by 112.1% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its stake in Toro by 850.0% during the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC raised its stake in Toro by 15.5% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Toro by 534.8% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,000 after purchasing an additional 1,123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Bay Advisors LLC raised its stake in Toro by 87.2% during the fourth quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 1,657 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,000 after purchasing an additional 772 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE TTC opened at $80.17 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $83.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $85.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The stock has a market cap of $8.07 billion, a PE ratio of 19.99 and a beta of 0.72. The Toro Company has a 12 month low of $76.95 and a 12 month high of $100.93.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. Toro had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.71 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.91%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Raymond James reduced their target price on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $93.75.

Toro Company Profile

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.