D.B. Root & Company LLC Increases Stock Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

D.B. Root & Company LLC increased its position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 4.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,081 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 251 shares during the period. D.B. Root & Company LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $527,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Toro by 350.9% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,258 shares of the company’s stock valued at $115,000 after purchasing an additional 979 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its holdings in Toro by 20.4% during the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 9,750 shares of the company’s stock valued at $893,000 after purchasing an additional 1,651 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Toro by 4.5% during the first quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 6,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $632,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd purchased a new position in Toro during the first quarter valued at $1,334,000. Finally, Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its holdings in Toro by 1.9% during the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 91,368 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,372,000 after purchasing an additional 1,661 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on TTC. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of Toro in a research note on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their price target on shares of Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.33.

Toro Price Performance

Toro stock opened at $84.85 on Thursday. The Toro Company has a 12-month low of $77.15 and a 12-month high of $102.00. The stock has a market cap of $8.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.27 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $84.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $88.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.23 by ($0.05). Toro had a return on equity of 25.94% and a net margin of 8.89%. The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.95 earnings per share. Toro’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were given a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.80%.

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.