The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Stock Holdings Lessened by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lowered its stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 198,599 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,857 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned approximately 0.20% of Toro worth $15,908,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of TTC. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. grew its position in Toro by 850.0% during the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC grew its position in Toro by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position 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. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC grew its position in Toro by 87.2% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 1,657 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,000 after purchasing an additional 772 shares in the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC grew its position in Toro by 13.5% during the 3rd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 1,540 shares of the company’s stock worth $134,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Trading Down 1.1 %

Toro stock opened at $79.27 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $7.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.77 and a beta of 0.72. The Toro Company has a 12 month low of $76.95 and a 12 month high of $100.93. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $82.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $84.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. Toro had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. Toro’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd were issued a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.91%.

Toro announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to repurchase 4,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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.