KBC Group NV Purchases 74,257 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

KBC Group NV lifted its position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Free Report) by 945.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 82,111 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 74,257 shares during the period. KBC Group NV owned 0.08% of Toro worth $6,577,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of TTC. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Toro by 24.5% in the 3rd quarter. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. now owns 144,438 shares of the company's stock valued at $12,527,000 after purchasing an additional 28,453 shares during the period. PEAK6 Investments LLC acquired a new position in Toro during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,248,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its position in Toro by 6,995.4% during the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 74,005 shares of the company's stock worth $6,418,000 after purchasing an additional 72,962 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its position in Toro by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 278,700 shares of the company's stock valued at $24,172,000 after acquiring an additional 14,950 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Toro in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,261,000. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Toro Stock Down 3.2 %

Shares of TTC stock traded down $2.64 on Monday, hitting $80.63. The stock had a trading volume of 1,103,173 shares, compared to its average volume of 770,979. The business has a 50 day moving average of $83.63 and a 200 day moving average of $85.73. The stock has a market cap of $8.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.11 and a beta of 0.72. 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 Toro Company has a 12-month low of $76.95 and a 12-month high of $100.93.

Toro (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.95. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. Toro had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Toro announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This is an increase from Toro's previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.91%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Raymond James decreased their price objective on shares of 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 and two have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $93.75.

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.