Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA Acquires New Stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 31,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,519,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Toro by 112.1% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 765 shares during the period. CWM LLC raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 15.5% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 1,123 shares during the period. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC grew its holdings in Toro by 13.5% during the 3rd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 1,540 shares of the company’s stock worth $134,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Raymond James reduced their price objective 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.75.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of TTC opened at $87.20 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $83.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $86.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The Toro Company has a twelve month low of $76.95 and a twelve month high of $100.93. The company has a market cap of $8.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.75 and a beta of 0.72.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd were given a $0.38 dividend. This is a positive change from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.91%.

Toro declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to buyback 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.