Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Acquires New Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 13,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,211,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Toro by 0.4% in the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 28,680 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,682,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Toro by 0.3% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 46,925 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,405,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC increased its stake in shares of Toro by 2.8% in the third quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 4,612 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank increased its stake in shares of Toro by 1.4% in the second quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 10,060 shares of the company’s stock worth $941,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of Toro by 15.5% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Price Performance

Toro stock opened at $81.88 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $83.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $88.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.40 billion, a PE ratio of 21.49 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The Toro Company has a 12-month low of $77.15 and a 12-month high of $102.00.

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

Toro Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.76%. Toro’s payout ratio is 37.80%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on TTC. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Toro in a research note on Friday, September 6th. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on shares of Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.33.

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.