Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Raises Stock Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Free Report) by 10.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 330,748 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 32,598 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. owned 0.33% of Toro worth $26,493,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Toro by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,959,875 shares of the company's stock valued at $169,639,000 after purchasing an additional 29,105 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Toro by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,187,550 shares of the company's stock valued at $95,123,000 after acquiring an additional 60,068 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its holdings in shares of Toro by 30.3% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,121,116 shares of the company's stock worth $89,701,000 after acquiring an additional 260,746 shares during the period. King Luther Capital Management Corp raised its position in shares of Toro by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 1,043,833 shares of the company's stock worth $83,611,000 after acquiring an additional 36,750 shares in the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE raised its position in shares of Toro by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 799,385 shares of the company's stock worth $64,031,000 after acquiring an additional 24,596 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Toro Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE TTC traded up $1.07 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $73.64. The stock had a trading volume of 225,314 shares, compared to its average volume of 949,188. The business's 50 day moving average is $78.54 and its 200-day moving average is $81.82. The Toro Company has a 52 week low of $71.23 and a 52 week high of $100.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The company has a market cap of $7.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.36 and a beta of 0.72.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Toro's payout ratio is currently 38.87%.

Toro declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to repurchase 4,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on TTC shares. StockNews.com cut Toro from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Northland Securities raised shares of Toro from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $100.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Raymond James dropped their price target on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $89.75.

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.