Toro (NYSE:TTC) Cut to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Toro (NYSE:TTC) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on TTC. Northland Capmk upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Northland Securities upgraded Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. DA Davidson dropped their target price on Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Raymond James dropped their target price on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.75.

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of TTC stock opened at $73.16 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.30 billion, a PE ratio of 18.24 and a beta of 0.70. Toro has a 52-week low of $71.23 and a 52-week high of $100.93. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $79.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $82.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

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, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.95. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Toro will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.87%.

Toro announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to buyback 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Toro

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. PEAK6 Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Toro during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,248,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its stake in Toro by 6,995.4% in the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 74,005 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,418,000 after buying an additional 72,962 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Toro in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,261,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd lifted its stake in Toro by 101.6% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 13,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,127,000 after buying an additional 6,550 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Toro by 294.4% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 24,652 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,975,000 after buying an additional 18,401 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

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.