Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Has $17.39 Million Stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 200,456 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 9,998 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned 0.20% of Toro worth $17,386,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Toro by 0.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,565,128 shares of the company’s stock worth $968,083,000 after acquiring an additional 73,719 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Toro by 25.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,653,109 shares of the company’s stock worth $609,626,000 after purchasing an additional 1,332,248 shares in the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Toro by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 5,519,407 shares of the company’s stock valued at $516,120,000 after buying an additional 88,536 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Toro by 1.4% in the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 4,766,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $445,673,000 after buying an additional 65,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Toro by 13.9% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 901,346 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,279,000 after buying an additional 110,330 shares during the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Toro Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of TTC opened at $80.96 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $83.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $88.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.94. The firm has a market cap of $8.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.25 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.

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

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.78%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.80%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on TTC. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 6th. DA Davidson reduced their price target 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 price objective on shares of Toro in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Toro has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.33.

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.