NFJ Investment Group LLC Lowers Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

NFJ Investment Group LLC lessened its stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 18.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 191,503 shares of the company’s stock after selling 44,477 shares during the quarter. NFJ Investment Group LLC owned approximately 0.19% of Toro worth $16,609,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in Toro by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 28,680 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,682,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Toro by 0.3% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 46,925 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,405,000 after buying an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC lifted its position in shares of Toro by 2.8% during the third quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 4,612 shares of the company’s stock valued at $400,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its position in shares of Toro by 1.4% during the second quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 10,060 shares of the company’s stock valued at $941,000 after buying an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on TTC shares. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Toro in a research report on Friday, September 6th. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on shares of Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $93.33.

Toro Price Performance

TTC stock traded down $0.76 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $85.74. The stock had a trading volume of 40,896 shares, compared to its average volume of 852,432. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $84.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $87.84. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The company has a market cap of $8.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.70 and a beta of 0.70. The Toro Company has a 52-week low of $77.15 and a 52-week high of $102.00.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by ($0.05). Toro had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.95 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.80%.

Toro 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.