Savant Capital LLC Increases Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Savant Capital LLC lifted its holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 5.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,293 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the quarter. Savant Capital LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $264,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of TTC. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Toro by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 15,298 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,225,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC grew its holdings in shares of Toro by 2.8% in the third quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 4,612 shares of the company’s stock valued at $400,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Northwest Financial Advisors increased its stake in Toro by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Northwest Financial Advisors now owns 6,945 shares of the company’s stock worth $556,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its position in Toro by 15.5% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after buying an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC now owns 15,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,318,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Price Performance

Toro stock opened at $82.63 on Wednesday. The Toro Company has a 12-month low of $76.95 and a 12-month high of $100.93. The stock has a market cap of $8.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.61 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 company has a fifty day simple moving average of $82.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $84.51.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is an increase from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.91%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Raymond James dropped their target price on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus 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.