Financial Advocates Investment Management Raises Stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Financial Advocates Investment Management lifted its position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 35.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 4,330 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,134 shares during the period. Financial Advocates Investment Management’s holdings in Toro were worth $347,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of TTC. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in shares of Toro by 112.1% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. lifted its position in Toro by 850.0% during the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,000 after buying an additional 765 shares during the period. CWM LLC boosted its stake in Toro by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,000 after buying an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in Toro by 534.8% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,000 after buying an additional 1,123 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Bay Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Toro by 87.2% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 1,657 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,000 after acquiring an additional 772 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Toro Stock Performance

Toro stock opened at $80.17 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The Toro Company has a 12 month low of $76.95 and a 12 month high of $100.93. The company has a market cap of $8.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.99 and a beta of 0.72. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $83.01 and its 200-day moving average is $85.17.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95. Toro had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share. Toro’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s payout ratio is currently 37.91%.

Toro announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to buyback 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.