Toro (NYSE:TTC) Upgraded at Northland Securities

Northland Securities upgraded shares of Toro (NYSE:TTC) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a report issued on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Northland Securities currently has $100.00 price objective on the stock.

Separately, Raymond James lowered their price target on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $93.75.

Toro Stock Down 1.1 %

Toro stock opened at $80.49 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.07 and a beta of 0.72. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $81.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $84.15. Toro has a 1-year low of $76.95 and a 1-year high of $100.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.95. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. Toro had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Toro will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were given a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s payout ratio is currently 37.91%.

Toro announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to buyback 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Toro

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Toro by 45.5% in the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,031,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $563,207,000 after acquiring an additional 2,199,920 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Toro by 996,664.0% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 498,382 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,410,000 after purchasing an additional 498,332 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Toro during the fourth quarter valued at $36,561,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in Toro by 411.3% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 464,609 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,215,000 after buying an additional 373,736 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Toro by 693.0% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 414,961 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,238,000 after buying an additional 362,634 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Company Profile

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.