Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Sells 910 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky cut its holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 32,859 shares of the company’s stock after selling 910 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Toro were worth $2,850,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its position in shares of Toro by 30.5% during the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 13,129 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,139,000 after buying an additional 3,069 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,959,875 shares of the company’s stock valued at $169,639,000 after purchasing an additional 29,105 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Toro by 14.3% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 30,419 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,638,000 after purchasing an additional 3,800 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd boosted its holdings in Toro by 31.3% in the third quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 24,035 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,085,000 after purchasing an additional 5,735 shares during the last quarter. Finally, iSAM Funds UK Ltd grew its position in Toro by 82.2% in the 3rd quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd now owns 5,521 shares of the company’s stock worth $479,000 after purchasing an additional 2,491 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of TTC opened at $88.32 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $84.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $87.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The Toro Company has a 52 week low of $77.15 and a 52 week high of $102.00. The stock has a market cap of $9.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.18 and a beta of 0.70.

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd will be issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.72%. This is a positive change from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.80%.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.