Toro (NYSE:TTC) Reaches New 12-Month Low – Time to Sell?

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) hit a new 52-week low during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $77.14 and last traded at $77.44, with a volume of 302914 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $79.25.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Raymond James decreased their price objective on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Toro has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.75.

Toro Stock Down 2.3 %

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 stock has a market capitalization of $7.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.31 and a beta of 0.72. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $83.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $86.73.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95. Toro had a return on equity of 25.94% and a net margin of 8.89%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that The Toro Company will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be issued a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.96%. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.91%.

Toro declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TTC. Select Equity Group L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 5,519,407 shares of the company’s stock worth $516,120,000 after buying an additional 88,536 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Toro by 1.4% in the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 4,766,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $445,673,000 after acquiring an additional 65,800 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Toro by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,959,875 shares of the company’s stock worth $169,639,000 after purchasing an additional 29,105 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Toro by 13.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 901,346 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,279,000 after purchasing an additional 110,330 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Toro by 11.7% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 618,986 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,685,000 after buying an additional 64,660 shares in 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.