The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Shares Sold by State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lessened its holdings in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 4.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 37,074 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,923 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Toro were worth $2,970,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Asset Planning Inc acquired a new position in shares of Toro during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its holdings in Toro by 850.0% in the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 765 shares during the period. CWM LLC raised its holdings in Toro by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after buying an additional 143 shares during the period. PrairieView Partners LLC raised its holdings in Toro by 14.7% in the 4th quarter. PrairieView Partners LLC now owns 1,547 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 198 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in Toro by 534.8% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,000 after buying an additional 1,123 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Raymond James reduced their price objective 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.75.

Toro Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:TTC opened at $81.38 on Friday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $8.19 billion, a PE ratio of 20.29 and a beta of 0.72. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $81.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $84.42. The Toro Company has a 1 year low of $76.95 and a 1 year high of $100.93.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates 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%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.71 earnings per share. Analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Toro declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This is a positive change from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.87%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is 37.91%.

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.