D.A. Davidson & CO. Raises Stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 22.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,552 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,114 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Toro were worth $925,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of TTC. Asset Planning Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Toro in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in Toro by 534.8% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after purchasing an additional 1,123 shares during the period. PrairieView Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Toro by 14.7% during the 4th quarter. PrairieView Partners LLC now owns 1,547 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 198 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Bay Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 87.2% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 1,657 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,000 after buying an additional 772 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Toro Stock Down 1.8 %

TTC opened at $79.95 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $81.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $84.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.94 and a beta of 0.72. The Toro Company has a fifty-two week low of $76.95 and a fifty-two week high of $100.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.81.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.95. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. Toro’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.71 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is a positive change from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.91%.

Toro declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.