Robert W. Baird Has Lowered Expectations for Toro (NYSE:TTC) Stock Price

Toro (NYSE:TTC) had its price objective trimmed by Robert W. Baird from $88.00 to $84.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Raymond James decreased their target price on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Northland Securities raised shares of 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, February 24th. Finally, Northland Capmk raised shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $91.75.

Toro Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of TTC opened at $73.44 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. Toro has a 12-month low of $72.18 and a 12-month high of $100.93. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $80.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $83.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.31 and a beta of 0.72.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95. Toro had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.71 earnings per share. Toro’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Toro will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.91%.

Toro announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to repurchase 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Toro

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TTC. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. purchased a new stake in shares of Toro in the 3rd quarter valued at about $666,000. Confluence Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Toro by 0.3% in the third quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 230,379 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,981,000 after buying an additional 709 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc boosted its stake in shares of Toro by 3.2% in the third quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 22,736 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,972,000 after buying an additional 710 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Toro by 11.3% in the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 7,776 shares of the company’s stock valued at $674,000 after buying an additional 789 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jensen Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Toro by 17.6% in the third quarter. Jensen Investment Management Inc. now owns 45,550 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,951,000 after buying an additional 6,810 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

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.