Values First Advisors Inc. Sells 949 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Values First Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 4.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 20,070 shares of the company’s stock after selling 949 shares during the quarter. Values First Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Toro were worth $1,608,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 112.1% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its position in shares of Toro by 850.0% during the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares during the period. CWM LLC raised its stake in shares of Toro by 15.5% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in Toro by 534.8% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after purchasing an additional 1,123 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Bay Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Toro by 87.2% during the fourth quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 1,657 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,000 after buying an additional 772 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Toro Stock Performance

NYSE:TTC opened at $80.15 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.99 and a beta of 0.72. The Toro Company has a 1 year low of $76.95 and a 1 year high of $100.93. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $82.89 and a 200-day moving average of $85.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.95. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. This is a positive change from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.91%.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Toro presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $93.75.

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.