The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) has been given an average rating of “Hold” by the four ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $93.75.

A number of equities analysts have commented on TTC shares. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Raymond James cut their price target on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. 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 note on Monday, September 9th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of Toro in a report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Toro

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Toro by 29.5% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,528 shares of the company’s stock valued at $517,000 after acquiring an additional 1,258 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its holdings in Toro by 22.4% in the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 908 shares of the company’s stock valued at $85,000 after buying an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. &PARTNERS purchased a new position in shares of Toro during the 2nd quarter worth $308,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of Toro by 37,332.5% during the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 470,901 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,034,000 after acquiring an additional 469,643 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cambiar Investors LLC increased its position in Toro by 1.8% during the second quarter. Cambiar Investors LLC now owns 116,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,876,000 after purchasing an additional 2,045 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of TTC traded up $1.37 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $82.46. The company had a trading volume of 610,560 shares, compared to its average volume of 859,337. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.64 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.94. Toro has a 52-week low of $77.15 and a 52-week high of $100.93. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $84.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $88.02.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.95. Toro had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.71 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Toro will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.84%. This is an increase from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is 37.91%.

Toro announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to buyback 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.