Values First Advisors Inc. Has $1.61 Million Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Values First Advisors Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 20,070 shares of the company’s stock after selling 949 shares during the period. Values First Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Toro were worth $1,608,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 333 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. lifted its stake in Toro by 850.0% in the 3rd 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 holdings in shares of Toro by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,000 after buying an additional 143 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Toro by 534.8% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after acquiring an additional 1,123 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Bay Advisors LLC grew its position 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 valued at $133,000 after purchasing an additional 772 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:TTC opened at $80.15 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The Toro Company has a 12-month low of $76.95 and a 12-month high of $100.93. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $82.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $85.05. The firm has a market cap of $8.07 billion, a PE ratio of 19.99 and a beta of 0.72.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. The company’s revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.71 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share 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 paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.90%. This is an increase from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.91%.

Toro announced that its board has initiated 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 reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.