KBC Group NV Acquires 74,257 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 945.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 82,111 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 74,257 shares during the period. KBC Group NV owned approximately 0.08% of Toro worth $6,577,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in Toro by 112.1% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 333 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. lifted its position in Toro by 850.0% in the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its stake in shares of Toro by 15.5% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Toro by 534.8% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after purchasing an additional 1,123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Bay Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Toro by 87.2% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 1,657 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,000 after buying an additional 772 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Raymond James dropped their price target on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.75.

Toro Price Performance

TTC opened at $84.55 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $8.55 billion, a PE ratio of 21.08 and a beta of 0.72. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $83.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $85.99. The Toro Company has a 52-week low of $76.95 and a 52-week high of $100.93.

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

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.80%. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s payout ratio is presently 37.91%.

Toro declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to repurchase 4,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is 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.