First Business Financial Services Inc. Purchases Shares of 5,000 The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

First Business Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 5,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $400,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Asset Planning Inc bought a new stake in Toro during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Toro by 195.7% in the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 547 shares of the company's stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Toro by 54.6% in the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 807 shares of the company's stock valued at $65,000 after purchasing an additional 285 shares in the last quarter. PrairieView Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Toro by 14.7% during the 4th quarter. PrairieView Partners LLC now owns 1,547 shares of the company's stock valued at $123,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Bay Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Toro by 87.2% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 1,657 shares of the company's stock worth $133,000 after purchasing an additional 772 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Toro from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday. Northland Capmk raised shares of Toro from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Northland Securities upgraded Toro from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $100.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Raymond James reduced their target price on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Toro currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $91.75.

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Toro Price Performance

Shares of Toro stock traded down $0.76 on Friday, hitting $73.44. 2,111,966 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 900,039. The Toro Company has a 12-month low of $72.18 and a 12-month high of $100.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The company has a market cap of $7.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.31 and a beta of 0.70. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $80.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $83.55.

Toro (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting 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 the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.71 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro announced 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 purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.07%. This is a positive change from Toro's previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro's dividend payout ratio is currently 38.87%.

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.