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

Van ECK Associates Corp cut its holdings in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Free Report) by 8.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 184,065 shares of the company's stock after selling 17,573 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp owned about 0.18% of Toro worth $15,071,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in Toro by 112.1% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company's stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 333 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Toro during the first quarter worth $66,000. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in shares of Toro by 522.6% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 716 shares of the company's stock valued at $66,000 after acquiring an additional 601 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its holdings in Toro by 850.0% in the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company's stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in Toro by 22.4% in the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 908 shares of the company's stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on TTC. DA Davidson reduced their price target on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of Toro from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Northland Securities reiterated a "market perform" rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Toro in a report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $93.33.

Toro Stock Up 1.9 %

TTC stock traded up $1.61 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $84.85. 919,098 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 878,338. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.27 and a beta of 0.69. The Toro Company has a 52-week low of $77.15 and a 52-week high of $102.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $84.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $88.29.

Toro (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.23 by ($0.05). Toro had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The company had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.95 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.16 EPS for the current year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were given a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Toro's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.80%.

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.