Southeast Asset Advisors LLC Sells 3,344 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Southeast Asset Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 10.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 29,630 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,344 shares during the period. Southeast Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $2,373,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of TTC. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in Toro by 0.8% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 1.1% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in Toro by 30.2% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 547 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares during the period. Northwest Financial Advisors grew its holdings in Toro by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Northwest Financial Advisors now owns 6,945 shares of the company’s stock worth $556,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Savant Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 3,293 shares of the company’s stock valued at $264,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TTC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Northland Capmk upgraded shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Northland Securities upgraded shares of Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, February 24th. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. StockNews.com lowered Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Raymond James lowered their price target on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.75.

Toro Stock Performance

NYSE TTC opened at $65.63 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.37 and a beta of 0.72. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $77.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $81.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.81. The Toro Company has a fifty-two week low of $63.71 and a fifty-two week high of $100.93.

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.32%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.87%.

Toro declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program 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 programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.