Merit Financial Group LLC Acquires Shares of 3,127 The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 3,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $250,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Toro by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,959,875 shares of the company’s stock valued at $169,639,000 after buying an additional 29,105 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 11.7% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 618,986 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,685,000 after acquiring an additional 64,660 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its position in shares of Toro by 11,970.3% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 393,008 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,750,000 after acquiring an additional 389,752 shares in the last quarter. Nuance Investments LLC bought a new position in Toro during the third quarter worth $29,146,000. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its holdings in Toro by 31.5% in the third quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 298,150 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,859,000 after purchasing an additional 71,431 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE TTC opened at $86.01 on Friday. 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 $8.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.45 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $83.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $86.09.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.95. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 yield of 1.77%. This is a positive change from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s payout ratio is presently 37.91%.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Raymond James dropped their target price 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Toro presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.75.

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.