The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Shares Acquired by Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc.

Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. boosted its stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Free Report) by 44.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 48,490 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 14,857 shares during the period. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc.'s holdings in Toro were worth $3,884,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in TTC. Inceptionr LLC grew its position in shares of Toro by 30.4% in the 4th quarter. Inceptionr LLC now owns 11,291 shares of the company's stock worth $904,000 after acquiring an additional 2,635 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Toro during the fourth quarter worth $36,561,000. First Business Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in Toro in the fourth quarter worth $400,000. Aigen Investment Management LP bought a new stake in Toro during the fourth quarter valued at $485,000. Finally, M&T Bank Corp raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 12.2% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 9,817 shares of the company's stock worth $786,000 after purchasing an additional 1,070 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on TTC. 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. Raymond James cut their price target on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com downgraded Toro from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Finally, Northland Capmk upgraded shares of Toro from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Toro currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $91.75.

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Toro Stock Performance

TTC stock traded up $4.07 on Monday, reaching $77.32. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,201,627 shares, compared to its average volume of 905,245. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $80.94 and a two-hundred day moving average of $83.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The company has a market capitalization of $7.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.28 and a beta of 0.70. The Toro Company has a 52 week low of $72.18 and a 52 week high of $100.93.

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

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a $0.38 dividend. 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 dividend yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. Toro's dividend payout ratio is currently 38.87%.

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

About Toro

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.