Brokerages Set The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) PT at $93.75

Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the four research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $93.75.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on TTC. Raymond James cut their target price on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 6th. DA Davidson dropped their target price on shares of Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Toro in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Toro

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TTC. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Toro by 112.1% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after acquiring an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its position in Toro by 850.0% in 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 during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in shares of Toro by 22.4% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 908 shares of the company’s stock worth $85,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Toro during the 2nd quarter valued at about $94,000. Finally, CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of Toro by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after buying an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Toro Price Performance

Toro stock opened at $81.48 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.39 and a beta of 0.70. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $84.13 and a 200-day moving average of $88.15. Toro has a 52-week low of $77.15 and a 52-week high of $100.93.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95. Toro had a return on equity of 25.94% and a net margin of 8.89%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Toro will post 4.16 EPS for the current year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd will be given a $0.38 dividend. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.91%.

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

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.