The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $89.75.

Several analysts have commented on TTC shares. Northland Capmk raised Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on shares of Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Raymond James cut 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. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th.

Institutional Trading of Toro

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TTC. PEAK6 Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Toro in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,248,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its stake in Toro by 6,995.4% during the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 74,005 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,418,000 after buying an additional 72,962 shares during the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd boosted its stake in Toro by 101.6% during the third quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 13,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,127,000 after buying an additional 6,550 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in Toro by 294.4% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 24,652 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,975,000 after buying an additional 18,401 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP increased its stake in shares of Toro by 111.4% in the 4th quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 51,945 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,161,000 after acquiring an additional 27,376 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Price Performance

NYSE:TTC opened at $73.29 on Friday. 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 52 week low of $71.23 and a 52 week high of $100.93. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $79.00 and its 200-day moving average price is $81.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.32 billion, a PE ratio of 18.28 and a beta of 0.70.

Toro announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.87%.

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.