DnB Asset Management AS Has $2.12 Million Stock Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

DnB Asset Management AS increased its stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 2.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 26,452 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 580 shares during the quarter. DnB Asset Management AS’s holdings in Toro were worth $2,119,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its stake in Toro by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 72,945 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,843,000 after acquiring an additional 5,429 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Toro in the 4th quarter valued at about $12,379,000. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Toro in the 4th quarter valued at about $382,000. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co bought a new position in Toro during the fourth quarter worth about $883,000. Finally, Korea Investment CORP grew its holdings in Toro by 217.2% during the fourth quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 90,259 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,230,000 after purchasing an additional 61,800 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TTC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Raymond James dropped their price objective on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Northland Securities raised shares of Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Northland Capmk raised shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, DA Davidson reduced their target price on shares of Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.75.

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TTC opened at $72.51 on Wednesday. The Toro Company has a one year low of $71.23 and a one year high of $100.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market cap of $7.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.08 and a beta of 0.70. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $78.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $81.82.

Toro declared that its Board of Directors has initiated 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 buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 14th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is 38.87%.

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.