The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,380,000 shares, a decrease of 17.0% from the August 31st total of 6,480,000 shares. Approximately 5.3% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 919,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.9 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Toro Trading Up 0.0 %

NYSE:TTC opened at $86.65 on Monday. Toro has a 52-week low of $77.15 and a 52-week high of $102.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $89.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $89.22. The company has a market capitalization of $8.89 billion, a PE ratio of 34.25 and a beta of 0.69.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.23 by ($0.05). Toro had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The business had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.26 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.95 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Toro will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. Toro’s payout ratio is 56.92%.

Institutional Trading of Toro

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Evoke Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Toro in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,479,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Toro by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,491,409 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,007,070,000 after purchasing an additional 103,300 shares during the last quarter. Cim LLC purchased a new position in Toro during the fourth quarter worth about $12,882,000. Boston Trust Walden Corp boosted its stake in Toro by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 325,053 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,396,000 after buying an additional 9,371 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia grew 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 buying an additional 129,743 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.