Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. Decreases Stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. lessened its position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 11,346 shares of the company’s stock after selling 748 shares during the quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Toro were worth $988,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of TTC. Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its position in shares of Toro by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 325,053 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,396,000 after purchasing an additional 9,371 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Toro by 27.2% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 54,458 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,990,000 after buying an additional 11,661 shares in the last quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC boosted its stake in Toro by 4.7% during the first quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 141,730 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,987,000 after buying an additional 6,350 shares during the last quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Toro by 20.2% in the 1st quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 138,568 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,697,000 after acquiring an additional 23,270 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gabelli Funds LLC increased its stake in shares of Toro by 19.6% in the 1st quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 55,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,040,000 after acquiring an additional 9,000 shares during the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Toro Stock Up 1.3 %

Toro stock opened at $81.50 on Friday. The Toro Company has a fifty-two week low of $77.15 and a fifty-two week high of $102.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $85.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $88.32. The company has a market capitalization of $8.36 billion, a PE ratio of 21.39 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.94.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.23 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.26 billion. Toro had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The business’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.95 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.77%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.80%.

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.