Tidal Investments LLC Raises Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 79.2% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 17,646 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 7,798 shares during the quarter. Tidal Investments LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $1,530,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in TTC. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in Toro by 112.1% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its position in Toro by 850.0% during the third 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 period. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in Toro by 22.4% during the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 908 shares of the company’s stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the period. CWM LLC raised its position in Toro by 15.5% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the period. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in Toro during the second quarter valued at approximately $94,000. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. DA Davidson reduced their price target on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 9th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of Toro in a report on Friday, September 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.33.

Toro Trading Down 1.2 %

TTC opened at $85.31 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $84.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $88.08. The company has a market capitalization of $8.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.56 and a beta of 0.70. The Toro Company has a 52 week low of $77.15 and a 52 week high of $102.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is an increase from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.90%.

Toro declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to buyback 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

About Toro

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.