Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Trims Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund lessened its holdings in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 29.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 13,758 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,640 shares during the quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in Toro were worth $1,102,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Toro by 24.5% in the 3rd quarter. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. now owns 144,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,527,000 after buying an additional 28,453 shares during the period. PEAK6 Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Toro in the 3rd quarter worth $1,248,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its position in shares of Toro by 6,995.4% in the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 74,005 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,418,000 after buying an additional 72,962 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Toro in the 3rd quarter worth $1,261,000. Finally, Point72 DIFC Ltd raised its position in shares of Toro by 101.6% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 13,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,127,000 after buying an additional 6,550 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Toro Trading Down 1.1 %

NYSE:TTC opened at $80.49 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $81.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $84.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The Toro Company has a 12 month low of $76.95 and a 12 month high of $100.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.10 billion, a PE ratio of 20.07 and a beta of 0.72.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.95. The company 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 firm’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This is an increase from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.89%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.91%.

Toro announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on TTC shares. Northland Capmk raised Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Northland Securities raised Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday. Finally, Raymond James cut their price objective on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Toro currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $93.75.

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.