Raymond James Has Lowered Expectations for Toro (NYSE:TTC) Stock Price

Toro (NYSE:TTC) had its price target lowered by Raymond James from $100.00 to $95.00 in a report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on TTC. StockNews.com raised shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 9th. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Toro in a report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.75.

Toro Stock Up 0.5 %

TTC stock opened at $81.48 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $84.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $88.15. The company has a market cap of $8.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.39 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.94. Toro has a fifty-two week low of $77.15 and a fifty-two week high of $100.93.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.95. Toro had a return on equity of 25.94% and a net margin of 8.89%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Toro will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.87%. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.91%.

Toro declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to repurchase 4,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Toro

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Toro by 27.8% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 47,912 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,989,000 after purchasing an additional 10,409 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Toro by 79.2% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 17,646 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,530,000 after purchasing an additional 7,798 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 23.8% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 17,245 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,468,000 after purchasing an additional 3,316 shares during the period. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Toro by 3.0% in the third quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,168 shares of the company’s stock valued at $882,000 after purchasing an additional 298 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in Toro during the third quarter valued at $592,000. 87.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.