Merit Financial Group LLC Takes $250,000 Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 3,127 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $250,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of TTC. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Toro by 2.1% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 25,759 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,409,000 after acquiring an additional 522 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Toro during the 2nd quarter valued at about $608,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new position in shares of Toro in the 2nd quarter valued at about $159,000. AE Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Toro by 12.6% during the 2nd quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,493 shares of the company's stock worth $233,000 after buying an additional 279 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in shares of Toro by 38.2% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 77,649 shares of the company's stock worth $7,272,000 after buying an additional 21,454 shares during the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Toro Trading Down 0.6 %

Toro stock traded down $0.54 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $86.01. 746,489 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 606,617. The Toro Company has a 52 week low of $76.95 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 stock has a market capitalization of $8.70 billion, a PE ratio of 21.45 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $83.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $86.08.

Toro (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. Toro's quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd were given a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.77%. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.91%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Raymond James dropped their target price 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 analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Toro has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus 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.