FORA Capital LLC Acquires New Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

FORA Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 5,474 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $502,000.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on TTC. StockNews.com cut Toro from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. DA Davidson increased their target price on Toro from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Toro from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research 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 issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $98.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at Toro

In related news, CEO Richard M. Olson sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.19, for a total transaction of $1,903,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 17,913 shares in the company, valued at $1,705,138.47. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.62% of the company’s stock.

Toro Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of NYSE TTC traded down $2.07 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $87.75. The company had a trading volume of 195,667 shares, compared to its average volume of 894,559. The company has a market capitalization of $9.11 billion, a PE ratio of 35.50 and a beta of 0.69. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $89.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $90.58. The Toro Company has a 1-year low of $77.15 and a 1-year high of $106.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 0.87.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 6th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.11. Toro had a return on equity of 25.04% and a net margin of 6.00%. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.58 EPS. Toro’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 18th were issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 18th. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.92%.

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.