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

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the four brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $93.75.

Separately, Raymond James decreased their target price on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th.

Toro Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of TTC stock opened at $83.45 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. Toro has a fifty-two week low of $76.95 and a fifty-two week high of $100.93. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $83.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $86.17. The stock has a market cap of $8.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.81 and a beta of 0.72.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its earnings results 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 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.71 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Toro will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Toro announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to repurchase 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were given a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.82%. This is a positive change from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.91%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Toro

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TTC. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in Toro by 112.1% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 850.0% in the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 765 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its stake in Toro by 15.5% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in Toro by 534.8% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after purchasing an additional 1,123 shares during the period. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC increased its stake in Toro by 13.5% during the third quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 1,540 shares of the company’s stock valued at $134,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

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.