The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Shares Sold by Simplicity Solutions LLC

Simplicity Solutions LLC cut its holdings in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 3.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,828 shares of the company’s stock after selling 225 shares during the quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $655,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of TTC. Durable Capital Partners LP acquired a new position in Toro in the 1st quarter valued at about $150,798,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Toro by 29.5% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,067,162 shares of the company’s stock valued at $573,603,000 after purchasing an additional 1,154,233 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Toro in the 4th quarter valued at about $118,097,000. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in Toro by 9.7% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 10,234,812 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,137,702,000 after purchasing an additional 903,088 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Toro by 25.0% in the 3rd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 4,180,246 shares of the company’s stock valued at $347,378,000 after purchasing an additional 835,637 shares during the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on TTC. DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Toro from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. TheStreet raised shares of Toro from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Toro from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $105.60.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of TTC opened at $84.28 on Thursday. The Toro Company has a fifty-two week low of $78.35 and a fifty-two week high of $108.50. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $90.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $88.83. The company has a market cap of $8.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.76 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 7th. The company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.02). Toro had a net margin of 6.53% and a return on equity of 26.66%. The firm had revenue of $1 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that The Toro Company will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 1st were given a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 28th. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Toro

In other news, VP Edric C. Funk sold 615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.57, for a total value of $55,085.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 1,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $93,958.93. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, VP Edric C. Funk sold 615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.57, for a total value of $55,085.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 1,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $93,958.93. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,192 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.75, for a total transaction of $460,790.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 33,051 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,933,276.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.62% of the company’s stock.

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.