StockNews.com Downgrades Toro (NYSE:TTC) to Hold

Toro (NYSE:TTC) was downgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday.

TTC has been the subject of several other reports. DA Davidson reduced their price target on Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Northland Securities raised Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Northland Capmk upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Raymond James dropped their price objective on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.75.

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TTC opened at $73.31 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $80.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $82.79. Toro has a 52 week low of $71.75 and a 52 week high of $100.93. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $7.32 billion, a PE ratio of 18.28 and a beta of 0.70.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, meeting 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.71 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Toro will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to repurchase 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Toro

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Toro by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 15,298 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,225,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the period. Lindenwold Advisors INC increased its stake in shares of Toro by 2.8% during the third quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 4,612 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. increased its stake in shares of Toro by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. now owns 11,473 shares of the company’s stock worth $923,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Toro by 30.2% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 547 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the period. Finally, Northwest Financial Advisors increased its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 139 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Company 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.