Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. Lowers Stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. decreased its position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 3.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 47,800 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,800 shares during the quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V.’s holdings in Toro were worth $4,588,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of TTC. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its holdings in shares of Toro by 1.2% during the first quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 49,173 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,262,000 after purchasing an additional 563 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. boosted its stake in Toro by 37.2% in the 1st quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 15,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,191,000 after buying an additional 4,200 shares during the last quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can grew its holdings in Toro by 7.6% in the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 60,366 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,309,000 after buying an additional 4,269 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Toro by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 883,779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $75,558,000 after buying an additional 23,223 shares during the period. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Toro by 9.2% during the 1st quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 37,193 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,180,000 after acquiring an additional 3,144 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Toro news, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,192 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.75, for a total value of $460,790.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 33,051 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,933,276.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, VP Edric C. Funk sold 615 shares of Toro stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.57, for a total transaction of $55,085.55. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 1,049 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $93,958.93. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,192 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.75, for a total value of $460,790.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 33,051 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,933,276.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.62% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on TTC. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Toro from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 21st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. TheStreet upgraded Toro from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their target price on Toro from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $105.60.

Toro Price Performance

TTC opened at $85.78 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $91.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $88.84. The Toro Company has a 52-week low of $78.35 and a 52-week high of $108.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. The company has a market cap of $8.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.31 and a beta of 0.72.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.02). Toro had a return on equity of 26.66% and a net margin of 6.53%. The business had revenue of $1 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Investors of record on Monday, April 1st were issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 28th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Toro’s payout ratio is currently 52.55%.

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.