MQS Management LLC Invests $357,000 in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

MQS Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 3,896 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $357,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Evoke Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Toro during the 4th quarter worth about $2,479,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Toro by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,491,409 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,007,070,000 after buying an additional 103,300 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Toro by 334.2% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 818,260 shares of the company’s stock worth $78,545,000 after buying an additional 629,820 shares during the period. Cim LLC bought a new stake in Toro in the 4th quarter valued at about $12,882,000. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia boosted its holdings in Toro by 5,261.3% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 132,209 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,690,000 after purchasing an additional 129,743 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of Toro stock traded up $0.55 on Thursday, reaching $96.02. 553,676 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 895,396. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $90.79 and its 200-day moving average is $90.57. The Toro Company has a one year low of $77.15 and a one year high of $104.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.93. The firm has a market cap of $9.97 billion, a PE ratio of 37.95 and a beta of 0.69.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 6th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. Toro had a net margin of 6.00% and a return on equity of 25.04%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.58 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 18th were given a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 18th. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is 56.92%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Toro news, CEO Richard M. Olson sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 17,913 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,705,138.47. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.62% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Toro from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Toro has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $98.75.

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.