AMG National Trust Bank Buys Shares of 19,690 The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

AMG National Trust Bank purchased a new position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 19,690 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,579,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Asset Planning Inc acquired a new stake in Toro during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Toro by 195.7% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 547 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 362 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 54.6% during the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 807 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,000 after buying an additional 285 shares during the last quarter. PrairieView Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Toro by 14.7% during the 4th quarter. PrairieView Partners LLC now owns 1,547 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 198 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Bay Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Toro by 87.2% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 1,657 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,000 after acquiring an additional 772 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TTC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Northland Securities raised Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Northland Capmk raised shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. StockNews.com cut shares of Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Raymond James decreased their price objective 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $91.75.

Toro Price Performance

TTC opened at $73.44 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $7.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.31 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $80.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $83.59. The Toro Company has a 12-month low of $72.18 and a 12-month high of $100.93.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its quarterly 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. 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.71 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a $0.38 dividend. This is an increase from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. Toro’s payout ratio is 37.91%.

Toro announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to repurchase 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Toro 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.