Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB Reduces Stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB cut its stake in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 6.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 36,742 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,495 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB’s holdings in Toro were worth $2,943,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Nuance Investments LLC bought a new stake in Toro in the third quarter worth $29,146,000. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Toro by 71.2% during the 3rd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 217,739 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,885,000 after purchasing an additional 90,538 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in Toro by 945.5% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 82,111 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,577,000 after purchasing an additional 74,257 shares during the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its position in shares of Toro by 6,995.4% during the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 74,005 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,418,000 after buying an additional 72,962 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its position in shares of Toro by 31.5% during the third quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 298,150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,859,000 after buying an additional 71,431 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Toro Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of Toro stock opened at $80.17 on Friday. The Toro Company has a 1 year low of $76.95 and a 1 year high of $100.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market cap of $8.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.99 and a beta of 0.72. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $83.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $85.31.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.95. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. Toro had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. Toro’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to buyback 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Raymond James cut their price objective on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Toro presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price 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.