Vontobel Holding Ltd. Increases Stock Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,361 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Toro were worth $205,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Toro by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,565,128 shares of the company’s stock worth $968,083,000 after acquiring an additional 73,719 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Toro by 25.0% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,653,109 shares of the company’s stock valued at $609,626,000 after purchasing an additional 1,332,248 shares during the period. Select Equity Group L.P. increased its position in Toro by 1.6% in the second quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 5,519,407 shares of the company’s stock worth $516,120,000 after buying an additional 88,536 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Toro by 1.4% in the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 4,766,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $445,673,000 after buying an additional 65,800 shares during the period. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Toro by 11.5% during the 1st quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,725,651 shares of the company’s stock valued at $249,751,000 after buying an additional 280,855 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of Toro stock opened at $81.88 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The Toro Company has a 12 month low of $77.15 and a 12 month high of $102.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $86.25 and a 200 day moving average of $88.57. The firm has a market cap of $8.40 billion, a PE ratio of 21.49 and a beta of 0.68.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.23 by ($0.05). Toro had a return on equity of 25.94% and a net margin of 8.89%. The business had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.95 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. Toro’s payout ratio is 37.80%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on TTC shares. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Toro in a research note on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com raised Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. DA Davidson dropped their price target on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $93.33.

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.