The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Receives $93.75 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the four ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $93.75.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com raised Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. DA Davidson dropped their price target on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Toro in a research note on Friday, September 6th.

Toro Price Performance

NYSE:TTC opened at $80.85 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $84.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $88.07. Toro has a 52 week low of $77.15 and a 52 week high of $100.93. The stock has a market cap of $8.18 billion, a PE ratio of 21.22 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its 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 25.94% and a net margin of 8.89%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Toro will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s payout ratio is presently 37.91%.

Institutional Trading of Toro

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TTC. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 112.1% in the third 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. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its stake in Toro by 850.0% in the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its position in shares of Toro by 22.4% during the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 908 shares of the company’s stock worth $85,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its position in shares of Toro by 15.5% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new position in shares of Toro in the second quarter worth about $94,000. 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.