Toro (NYSE:TTC) Hits New 1-Year Low - Time to Sell?

Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $77.14 and last traded at $77.44, with a volume of 302914 shares. The stock had previously closed at $79.25.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Raymond James dropped their price objective on 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 assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Toro has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $93.75.

Toro Stock Down 2.2 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.94 and a quick ratio of 0.85. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $83.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $86.73.

Toro (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. Toro's quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.16 EPS for the current year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 23rd. This is an increase from Toro's previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.91%.

Toro declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan 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. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Toro

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Lindenwold Advisors INC raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 2.8% during the third quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 4,612 shares of the company's stock worth $400,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank raised its stake in shares of Toro by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 10,060 shares of the company's stock valued at $941,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the period. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 15.5% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company's stock valued at $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Toro by 1.0% during the third quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC now owns 15,201 shares of the company's stock worth $1,318,000 after buying an additional 146 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in shares of Toro by 7.1% during the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 2,366 shares of the company's stock worth $205,000 after buying an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.