Retirement Systems of Alabama Buys 322 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its stake in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 151,637 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 322 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Toro were worth $14,556,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Consolidated Planning Corp bought a new stake in Toro in the fourth quarter worth $3,573,000. Sonen Capital LLC bought a new stake in Toro in the fourth quarter worth $256,000. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lifted its stake in Toro by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 59,877 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,748,000 after purchasing an additional 4,411 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in Toro in the fourth quarter worth $42,000. Finally, Marks Group Wealth Management Inc lifted its stake in Toro by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc now owns 66,697 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,402,000 after purchasing an additional 1,447 shares during the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, 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 $2,933,276.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, 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 $2,933,276.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Edric C. Funk sold 615 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 1,049 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $93,958.93. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.62% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on TTC. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. TheStreet upgraded shares of Toro from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of Toro from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.60.

Toro Price Performance

TTC stock opened at $87.21 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $88.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $89.01. The Toro Company has a 12-month low of $78.35 and a 12-month high of $108.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.83 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a current ratio of 2.13, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.02). Toro had a net margin of 6.53% and a return on equity of 26.66%. The company had revenue of $1 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. Toro’s quarterly revenue was down 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Investors of record on Monday, April 1st were paid a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 28th. Toro’s payout ratio is currently 52.55%.

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.