Prudential Financial Inc. Acquires 71,452 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Prudential Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 211.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 105,202 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 71,452 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.10% of Toro worth $8,517,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Toro by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 15,298 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,225,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. increased its stake in shares of Toro by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. now owns 11,473 shares of the company’s stock valued at $923,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Northwest Financial Advisors raised its position in shares of Toro by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Northwest Financial Advisors now owns 6,945 shares of the company’s stock valued at $556,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC boosted its stake in Toro by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 3,293 shares of the company’s stock worth $264,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Toro by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,216 shares of the company’s stock valued at $258,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Stock Down 2.1 %

TTC stock opened at $73.29 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $7.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.28 and a beta of 0.70. The Toro Company has a fifty-two week low of $71.23 and a fifty-two week high of $100.93. The business has a 50-day moving average of $79.00 and a 200-day moving average of $81.97.

Toro declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to repurchase 4,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.87%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. StockNews.com cut Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Northland Capmk raised Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. DA Davidson cut their price objective on Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Raymond James lowered their target price on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Toro currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.75.

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.