NFJ Investment Group LLC Trims Stock Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

NFJ Investment Group LLC reduced its stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 18.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 191,503 shares of the company’s stock after selling 44,477 shares during the period. NFJ Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $16,609,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. raised its holdings in Toro by 24.5% in the 3rd quarter. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. now owns 144,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,527,000 after buying an additional 28,453 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its position in Toro by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 325,053 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,396,000 after acquiring an additional 9,371 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc acquired a new position in Toro in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,139,000. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in Toro by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 278,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,172,000 after acquiring an additional 14,950 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its position in Toro by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 200,456 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,386,000 after acquiring an additional 9,998 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 6th. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Toro in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.33.

Toro Stock Down 0.9 %

TTC traded down $0.76 on Tuesday, reaching $85.74. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 40,896 shares, compared to its average volume of 852,432. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $84.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $87.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The company has a market capitalization of $8.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.70 and a beta of 0.70. The Toro Company has a fifty-two week low of $77.15 and a fifty-two week high of $102.00.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.26 billion. Toro had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.95 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that The Toro Company will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Toro’s payout ratio is 37.80%.

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.