The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Shares Sold by Cambiar Investors LLC

Cambiar Investors LLC cut its stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 11.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 102,435 shares of the company’s stock after selling 13,180 shares during the period. Cambiar Investors LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $8,205,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in Toro by 112.1% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 333 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its holdings in Toro by 850.0% in the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 765 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC raised its holdings in Toro by 15.5% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in Toro by 534.8% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,000 after acquiring an additional 1,123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC raised its holdings in Toro by 13.5% in the third quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 1,540 shares of the company’s stock valued at $134,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Toro Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:TTC opened at $80.08 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.97 and a beta of 0.72. The Toro Company has a 1-year low of $76.95 and a 1-year high of $100.93. The company’s fifty day moving average is $83.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $85.17. 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 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95. Toro had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Toro announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to repurchase 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd were issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.91%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Raymond James dropped their target price on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.75.

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.