Atria Investments Inc Boosts Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Atria Investments Inc boosted its holdings in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 30.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,687 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 6,951 shares during the quarter. Atria Investments Inc’s holdings in Toro were worth $2,378,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Toro by 693.0% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 414,961 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,238,000 after buying an additional 362,634 shares during the last quarter. Keybank National Association OH raised its position in Toro by 8.7% during the 4th quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 3,630 shares of the company’s stock worth $291,000 after buying an additional 292 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 1,023.0% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $137,000 after purchasing an additional 1,555 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 799,385 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,031,000 after purchasing an additional 24,596 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 11,114 shares of the company’s stock valued at $890,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of NYSE TTC opened at $73.44 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $7.39 billion, a PE ratio of 18.31 and a beta of 0.70. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $80.94 and a 200 day moving average of $83.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.81. The Toro Company has a one year low of $72.18 and a one year high of $100.93.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.95. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. Toro had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to buyback 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s payout ratio is 38.87%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Raymond James cut their target price on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Northland Securities raised shares of Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Northland Capmk raised shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $91.75.

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.