Toro (NYSE:TTC) Upgraded at Northland Securities

Northland Securities upgraded shares of Toro (NYSE:TTC) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a report released on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Northland Securities currently has $100.00 price target on the stock.

Separately, Raymond James reduced their price target on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $93.75.

Toro Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of TTC stock opened at $80.49 on Monday. Toro has a 1 year low of $76.95 and a 1 year high of $100.93. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $81.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $84.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.07 and a beta of 0.72.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Toro will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to repurchase 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.89%. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.91%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Toro

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Toro by 45.5% during the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,031,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $563,207,000 after buying an additional 2,199,920 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in Toro by 996,664.0% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 498,382 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,410,000 after acquiring an additional 498,332 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Toro in the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,561,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in Toro by 411.3% in the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 464,609 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,215,000 after purchasing an additional 373,736 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Toro by 693.0% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 414,961 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,238,000 after purchasing an additional 362,634 shares during the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.