Teacher Retirement System of Texas Purchases New Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 48,261 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,866,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Asset Planning Inc purchased a new position in shares of Toro in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Toro by 195.7% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 547 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 362 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Toro by 54.6% during the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 807 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,000 after acquiring an additional 285 shares during the last quarter. PrairieView Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Toro by 14.7% in the fourth quarter. PrairieView Partners LLC now owns 1,547 shares of the company’s stock worth $123,000 after acquiring an additional 198 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Bay Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 87.2% during 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. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. DA Davidson decreased their target price on shares of Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Northland Capmk upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Raymond James reduced their price target on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Northland Securities raised shares of Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.75.

Toro Stock Up 1.9 %

NYSE TTC opened at $74.39 on Tuesday. The Toro Company has a 52 week low of $71.23 and a 52 week high of $100.93. 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 company has a market capitalization of $7.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.55 and a beta of 0.70. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $79.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $82.19.

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.87%.

Toro announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to repurchase 4,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.