Benjamin Edwards Inc. Invests $103,000 in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. bought a new stake in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $103,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in TTC. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Toro by 24.4% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 128,430 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,673,000 after buying an additional 25,228 shares in the last quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI acquired a new stake in shares of Toro during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,304,000. Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in shares of Toro by 23.3% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 265,204 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,457,000 after purchasing an additional 50,105 shares in the last quarter. Consolidated Planning Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Toro in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,573,000. Finally, Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lifted its position in shares of Toro by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 130,375 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,834,000 after buying an additional 10,616 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Toro

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

Toro Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Toro stock opened at $88.31 on Friday. The Toro Company has a fifty-two week low of $78.35 and a fifty-two week high of $108.50. 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 $9.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.23 and a beta of 0.72. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $88.76 and a 200 day moving average of $89.01.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $1 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 26.66% and a net margin of 6.53%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 1st were paid a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 28th. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.55%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. TheStreet raised shares of Toro from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. StockNews.com lowered Toro from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their price objective on Toro from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Toro has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $105.60.

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.