Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Raises Stock Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 31.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 298,150 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 71,431 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Toro were worth $25,859,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of TTC. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd lifted its position in Toro by 82.0% during the third quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd now owns 55,721 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,833,000 after purchasing an additional 25,105 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 7,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $676,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC grew its position in Toro by 49.1% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 36,927 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,203,000 after acquiring an additional 12,157 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. increased its stake in Toro by 27.1% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 69,580 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,035,000 after acquiring an additional 14,826 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Toro during the third quarter worth approximately $1,261,000. 87.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Toro Price Performance

TTC opened at $86.45 on Monday. The Toro Company has a 52-week low of $77.15 and a 52-week high of $102.00. The stock has a market cap of $8.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.34 and a beta of 0.69. The business has a fifty day moving average of $83.85 and a 200 day moving average of $87.94. 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 (NYSE:TTC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.26 billion. Toro had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.95 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.16 EPS for the current year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were given a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.80%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TTC has been the subject of several analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Toro in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Finally, DA Davidson lowered their target price on shares of Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 9th. 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 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.