Quantbot Technologies LP Boosts Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Quantbot Technologies LP raised its holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Free Report) by 111.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 51,945 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 27,376 shares during the quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP owned about 0.05% of Toro worth $4,161,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. PEAK6 Investments LLC acquired a new position in Toro in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,248,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its stake in shares of Toro by 6,995.4% in the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 74,005 shares of the company's stock valued at $6,418,000 after purchasing an additional 72,962 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Toro in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,261,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 5.2% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 200,456 shares of the company's stock valued at $17,386,000 after purchasing an additional 9,998 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 DIFC Ltd raised its stake in shares of Toro by 101.6% during the third quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 13,000 shares of the company's stock worth $1,127,000 after purchasing an additional 6,550 shares during the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:TTC traded down $0.63 on Wednesday, reaching $72.17. 970,899 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 909,191. 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 Toro Company has a 1-year low of $71.74 and a 1-year high of $100.93. The company has a 50-day moving average of $80.12 and a 200-day moving average of $82.65. The firm has a market cap of $7.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.00 and a beta of 0.70.

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Toro (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.95. Toro had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.71 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 14th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.11%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. Toro's dividend payout ratio is currently 38.87%.

Toro announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to buyback 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TTC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Raymond James dropped their price objective on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Northland Securities raised shares of Toro from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $100.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com cut shares of Toro from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday. Northland Capmk upgraded shares of Toro from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, DA Davidson dropped their target price on Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $89.75.

Toro Company 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.