Van ECK Associates Corp Has $15.07 Million Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Van ECK Associates Corp decreased its position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 8.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 184,065 shares of the company’s stock after selling 17,573 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Toro were worth $15,071,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in TTC. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Toro by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,565,128 shares of the company’s stock valued at $968,083,000 after purchasing an additional 73,719 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Toro by 25.0% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,653,109 shares of the company’s stock worth $609,626,000 after buying an additional 1,332,248 shares in the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. increased its stake in Toro by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 5,519,407 shares of the company’s stock worth $516,120,000 after acquiring an additional 88,536 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Toro by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 4,766,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $445,673,000 after acquiring an additional 65,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Toro by 11.5% during the 1st quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,725,651 shares of the company’s stock worth $249,751,000 after purchasing an additional 280,855 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on TTC shares. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Toro in a report on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Finally, DA Davidson cut their target price on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Toro currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.33.

Toro Trading Up 3.2 %

TTC opened at $83.24 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $84.71 and its 200-day moving average is $88.31. The company has a market cap of $8.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.85 and a beta of 0.69. The Toro Company has a 1-year low of $77.15 and a 1-year 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.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.26 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 25.94% and a net margin of 8.89%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.95 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were given a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.73%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.80%.

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.