Van ECK Associates Corp Decreases Stock Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Van ECK Associates Corp cut its stake in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Free Report) by 8.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 168,617 shares of the company's stock after selling 15,448 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp owned approximately 0.17% of Toro worth $13,506,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Toro by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,959,875 shares of the company's stock valued at $169,639,000 after purchasing an additional 29,105 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of Toro by 11.7% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 618,986 shares of the company's stock valued at $53,685,000 after purchasing an additional 64,660 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Toro by 996,664.0% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 498,382 shares of the company's stock valued at $39,410,000 after purchasing an additional 498,332 shares during the period. Nuance Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Toro in the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,146,000. Finally, Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its stake in Toro by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 334,132 shares of the company's stock worth $26,764,000 after buying an additional 11,549 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Toro Stock Up 0.3 %

TTC stock traded up $0.25 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $82.88. 724,565 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 776,555. 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 firm's 50 day moving average is $82.24 and its 200 day moving average is $84.51. The firm has a market cap of $8.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.67 and a beta of 0.72. The Toro Company has a twelve month low of $76.95 and a twelve month high of $100.93.

Toro (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.95. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.71 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is a positive change from Toro's previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. Toro's payout ratio is currently 37.91%.

Toro announced that its Board of Directors has approved 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 purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Raymond James dropped their price target on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $93.75.

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.