Diversified Trust Co Buys 10,383 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Diversified Trust Co lifted its stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Free Report) by 72.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 24,631 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 10,383 shares during the quarter. Diversified Trust Co's holdings in Toro were worth $1,973,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Toro by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 28,680 shares of the company's stock worth $2,682,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC raised its holdings in Toro by 2.8% during the third quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 4,612 shares of the company's stock valued at $400,000 after buying an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its position in shares of Toro by 1.4% in the second quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 10,060 shares of the company's stock worth $941,000 after buying an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its stake in shares of Toro by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company's stock worth $92,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC now owns 15,201 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,318,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TTC traded up $0.87 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $79.23. 729,842 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 740,248. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.80 and a beta of 0.72. The company's 50-day moving average price is $83.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $86.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.94 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The Toro Company has a 1-year low of $77.15 and a 1-year high of $100.93.

Toro (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.95. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. Toro had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. Toro's quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to repurchase 4,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd will be paid a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 23rd. This is a boost from Toro's previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.91%.

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.