Champlain Investment Partners LLC Trims Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Champlain Investment Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,676,681 shares of the company’s stock after selling 16,920 shares during the quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC owned 1.63% of Toro worth $145,419,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd raised its stake in shares of Toro by 114.3% during the first quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $137,000 after acquiring an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 9,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $883,000 after buying an additional 359 shares during the period. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co grew its position in shares of Toro by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 78,010 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,145,000 after buying an additional 2,434 shares in the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC increased its stake in shares of Toro by 19.6% during the first quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 55,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,040,000 after buying an additional 9,000 shares during the period. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 23.3% in the first quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 566,666 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,924,000 after acquiring an additional 106,949 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Toro Stock Up 1.6 %

NYSE:TTC opened at $85.11 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $83.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $87.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.94. The Toro Company has a fifty-two week low of $77.15 and a fifty-two week high of $102.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.34 and a beta of 0.69.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its quarterly 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.95 earnings per share. Toro’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.80%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.