Nordea Investment Management AB Sells 926,741 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Nordea Investment Management AB trimmed its holdings in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Free Report) by 96.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 37,858 shares of the company's stock after selling 926,741 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB's holdings in Toro were worth $3,054,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in Toro by 682.7% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 482,139 shares of the company's stock worth $45,085,000 after buying an additional 420,539 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in Toro by 11,970.3% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 393,008 shares of the company's stock worth $36,750,000 after purchasing an additional 389,752 shares during the last quarter. Nuance Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Toro in the 3rd quarter worth $29,146,000. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in shares of Toro during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,166,000. Finally, Ensign Peak Advisors Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 41.0% during the 2nd quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 600,626 shares of the company's stock worth $56,165,000 after acquiring an additional 174,545 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Raymond James reduced their price objective on shares of 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 issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Toro presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $93.75.

Toro Price Performance

TTC stock traded down $1.72 during trading on Friday, hitting $77.53. 979,862 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 780,177. The Toro Company has a one year low of $77.14 and a one year high of $100.93. The stock has a market cap of $7.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.35 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $83.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $86.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

Toro (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is a boost from Toro's previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.96%. Toro's payout ratio is currently 37.91%.

Toro declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.