Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. Has $3.88 Million Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. lifted its holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 44.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 48,490 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,857 shares during the period. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Toro were worth $3,884,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Inceptionr LLC grew its stake in Toro by 30.4% during the fourth quarter. Inceptionr LLC now owns 11,291 shares of the company’s stock worth $904,000 after buying an additional 2,635 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Toro during the fourth quarter worth about $36,561,000. First Business Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in Toro during the fourth quarter worth about $400,000. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in Toro during the fourth quarter worth about $485,000. Finally, M&T Bank Corp grew its stake in Toro by 12.2% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 9,817 shares of the company’s stock worth $786,000 after buying an additional 1,070 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TTC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Northland Securities upgraded shares of Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Raymond James reduced their price objective 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. Finally, Northland Capmk upgraded shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $93.75.

Toro Stock Down 4.8 %

TTC stock opened at $74.30 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.53 and a beta of 0.72. 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 Toro Company has a 12 month low of $72.18 and a 12 month high of $100.93. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $81.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $83.70.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its 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 during 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors 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 2.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. This is a positive change from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.91%.

Toro declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to repurchase 4,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication 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.