JPMorgan Chase & Co. Sells 205,137 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced its position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 15.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,118,509 shares of the company’s stock after selling 205,137 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned approximately 1.11% of Toro worth $97,008,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of TTC. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in shares of Toro by 112.1% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 333 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 850.0% in the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,000 after acquiring an additional 765 shares during the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new position in Toro in the 2nd quarter valued at about $94,000. CWM LLC boosted its stake in Toro by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in Toro by 534.8% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after purchasing an additional 1,123 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TTC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Raymond James cut their price objective on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 20th. DA Davidson lowered their target price on shares of Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Toro in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $93.75.

Toro Stock Performance

NYSE TTC opened at $79.07 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.00 billion, a PE ratio of 20.75 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.94. The Toro Company has a 52-week low of $77.15 and a 52-week high of $100.93. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $83.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $87.33.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95. Toro had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. Toro’s revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.16 EPS for the current year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.92%. This is a positive change from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.91%.

Toro declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are 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.