Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Has $1.82 Million Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lessened its holdings in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 2.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 22,761 shares of the company’s stock after selling 690 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $1,823,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. PEAK6 Investments LLC bought a new stake in Toro during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,248,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted 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 worth $6,418,000 after purchasing an additional 72,962 shares in the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd grew its stake in shares of Toro by 101.6% during the third quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 13,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,127,000 after purchasing an additional 6,550 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 294.4% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 24,652 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,975,000 after purchasing an additional 18,401 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Toro by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,187,550 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,123,000 after purchasing an additional 60,068 shares during the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Northland Securities upgraded Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. Northland Capmk raised Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Toro has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.75.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of TTC opened at $73.29 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $7.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.28 and a beta of 0.70. The Toro Company has a 1 year low of $71.23 and a 1 year high of $100.93. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $79.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $81.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

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

Toro Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 14th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.87%.

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.