Accel Wealth Management Acquires New Shares in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Accel Wealth Management acquired a new stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 2,094 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its stake in Toro by 1.2% during the first quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 49,173 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,262,000 after purchasing an additional 563 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. lifted its stake in Toro by 37.2% during the first quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 15,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,191,000 after purchasing an additional 4,200 shares in the last quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can increased its position in shares of Toro by 7.6% during the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 60,366 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,309,000 after acquiring an additional 4,269 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Toro by 2.7% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 883,779 shares of the company’s stock worth $75,558,000 after acquiring an additional 23,223 shares during the period. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Toro by 9.2% during the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 37,193 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,180,000 after acquiring an additional 3,144 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on TTC. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Toro from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 21st. StockNews.com lowered Toro from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. TheStreet raised Toro from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their target price on shares of Toro from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $105.60.

Toro Stock Performance

NYSE:TTC traded up $1.53 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $91.63. The stock had a trading volume of 630,664 shares, compared to its average volume of 737,791. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 2.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.88 and a beta of 0.72. The Toro Company has a twelve month low of $78.35 and a twelve month high of $111.85. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $92.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $88.24.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 7th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $1 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1 billion. Toro had a net margin of 6.53% and a return on equity of 26.66%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 12th. Investors of record on Monday, April 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 28th. Toro’s payout ratio is 52.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Edric C. Funk sold 615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.57, for a total value of $55,085.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 1,049 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $93,958.93. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Toro news, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,192 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.75, for a total value of $460,790.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 33,051 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,933,276.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Edric C. Funk sold 615 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.57, for a total transaction of $55,085.55. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 1,049 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $93,958.93. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.62% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Toro 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.