Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Increases Stock Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 31.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 298,150 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 71,431 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. owned 0.29% of Toro worth $25,859,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in Toro by 112.1% during the 3rd 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 position in Toro by 850.0% during the third 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. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in Toro by 22.4% in the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 908 shares of the company’s stock valued at $85,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares during the period. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new position in Toro in the second quarter worth about $94,000. Finally, CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of Toro by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Toro Stock Performance

TTC opened at $86.45 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $83.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $87.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.94 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market cap of $8.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.34 and a beta of 0.69. The Toro Company has a 1-year low of $77.15 and a 1-year high of $102.00.

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

Toro Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. Toro’s payout ratio is currently 37.80%.

Toro 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.