The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Shares Sold by Burney Co.

Burney Co. trimmed its position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Free Report) by 8.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 45,638 shares of the company's stock after selling 4,428 shares during the quarter. Burney Co.'s holdings in Toro were worth $3,656,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in Toro by 112.1% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company's stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 333 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its stake in shares of Toro by 850.0% in the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company's stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 765 shares during the period. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company's stock valued at $92,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 534.8% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company's stock valued at $125,000 after acquiring an additional 1,123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Bay Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Toro by 87.2% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 1,657 shares of the company's stock valued at $133,000 after purchasing an additional 772 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Raymond James reduced their price objective on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $93.75.

Toro Stock Up 0.4 %

TTC traded up $0.34 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $82.55. 544,784 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 769,498. The Toro Company has a fifty-two week low of $76.95 and a fifty-two week high of $100.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The company has a market cap of $8.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.59 and a beta of 0.72. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $83.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $86.33.

Toro (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.95. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company 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 forecast that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. This is a positive change from Toro's previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro's payout ratio is 37.91%.

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

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.