Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. Sells 2,033 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. cut its holdings in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 219,041 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,033 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. owned about 0.21% of Toro worth $21,026,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Toro by 25.0% during the 3rd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 4,180,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $347,378,000 after buying an additional 835,637 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Toro by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,675,185 shares of the company’s stock worth $222,308,000 after buying an additional 61,806 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Toro by 20.3% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,209,725 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,528,000 after purchasing an additional 204,542 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Toro by 249.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,061,930 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,246,000 after purchasing an additional 757,641 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Toro by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 926,094 shares of the company’s stock worth $76,958,000 after purchasing an additional 37,589 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Toro Stock Up 1.4 %

Toro stock opened at $86.31 on Tuesday. 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 Toro Company has a 12-month low of $78.35 and a 12-month high of $108.50. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $89.98 and its 200 day moving average is $88.93. The company has a market capitalization of $9.01 billion, a PE ratio of 31.50 and a beta of 0.72.

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

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 1st were paid a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 28th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.67%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Toro

In other Toro news, VP Edric C. Funk sold 615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.57, for a total transaction of $55,085.55. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 1,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $93,958.93. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, VP Edric C. Funk sold 615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.57, for a total value of $55,085.55. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 1,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $93,958.93. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,192 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.75, for a total transaction of $460,790.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now 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 company insiders.

Toro Company 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.