First Business Financial Services Inc. Takes Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

First Business Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 5,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $400,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of TTC. abrdn plc increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 2,874 shares of the company’s stock valued at $249,000 after acquiring an additional 157 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. acquired a new position in Toro in the 3rd quarter valued at $666,000. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc increased its stake in Toro by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc now owns 91,567 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,942,000 after buying an additional 2,425 shares during the period. Radnor Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Toro in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,379,000. Finally, D.B. Root & Company LLC increased its stake in Toro by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC now owns 6,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $527,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of NYSE TTC opened at $78.23 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.51 and a beta of 0.72. The Toro Company has a one year low of $74.51 and a one year high of $100.93. The company’s fifty day moving average is $81.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $83.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.81.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, hitting 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 net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. The business’s revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. Analysts forecast that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd were given a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. This is a positive change from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. Toro’s payout ratio is currently 37.91%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TTC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Northland Capmk raised shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Raymond James dropped their price objective on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note 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 research note on Monday, February 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.