First Horizon Advisors Inc. Raises Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 54.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 807 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 285 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Toro were worth $65,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in Toro by 996,664.0% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 498,382 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,410,000 after acquiring an additional 498,332 shares in the last quarter. Nuance Investments LLC purchased a new position in Toro in the third quarter worth about $29,146,000. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC grew its position in Toro by 71.2% in the third quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 217,739 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,885,000 after acquiring an additional 90,538 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its position in Toro by 945.5% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 82,111 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,577,000 after acquiring an additional 74,257 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its position in Toro by 6,995.4% in the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 74,005 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,418,000 after acquiring an additional 72,962 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:TTC opened at $79.81 on Friday. The Toro Company has a 1 year low of $76.95 and a 1 year high of $100.93. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $81.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $84.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.03 billion, a PE ratio of 19.90 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.95. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Toro announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This is an increase from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s payout ratio is currently 37.91%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on TTC shares. Northland Securities upgraded Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday. Raymond James dropped their price target on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Northland Capmk upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Toro presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $93.75.

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.