Quadrature Capital Ltd Lowers Stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Quadrature Capital Ltd trimmed its holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 72.7% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 10,981 shares of the company’s stock after selling 29,176 shares during the quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd’s holdings in Toro were worth $1,007,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in TTC. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in Toro by 1,204.8% during the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 274 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 2,057.1% during the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 302 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new position in Toro in the 4th quarter valued at $42,000. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its stake in Toro by 30.2% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 621 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,000 after buying an additional 144 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Toro during the 4th quarter worth $66,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Toro from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, June 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Toro currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $98.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Richard M. Olson sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.19, for a total value of $1,903,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 17,913 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,705,138.47. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.62% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Toro Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:TTC traded up $0.76 during trading on Friday, reaching $96.76. The stock had a trading volume of 1,055,521 shares, compared to its average volume of 912,681. The stock has a market cap of $10.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.25 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The Toro Company has a fifty-two week low of $77.15 and a fifty-two week high of $104.70. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $90.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $90.60.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 6th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.11. Toro had a net margin of 6.00% and a return on equity of 25.04%. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.58 EPS. The company’s revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 18th were given a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 18th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.49%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.92%.

Toro 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.