The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Shares Sold by JLB & Associates Inc.

JLB & Associates Inc. trimmed its position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 179,936 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,670 shares during the period. Toro comprises about 2.0% of JLB & Associates Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest holding. JLB & Associates Inc. owned approximately 0.18% of Toro worth $14,413,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Toro by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 15,298 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,225,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC lifted its holdings in Toro by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 4,612 shares of the company’s stock valued at $400,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Northwest Financial Advisors boosted its stake in Toro by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Northwest Financial Advisors now owns 6,945 shares of the company’s stock worth $556,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its stake in Toro by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Toro by 1.0% during the third quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC now owns 15,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,318,000 after buying an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Toro Stock Performance

NYSE TTC opened at $81.38 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.81. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $81.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $84.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.29 and a beta of 0.72. The Toro Company has a fifty-two week low of $76.95 and a fifty-two week high of $100.93.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.95. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a $0.38 dividend. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.87%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is 37.91%.

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.