Eagle Bay Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Eagle Bay Advisors LLC grew its holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 87.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,657 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 772 shares during the period. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $133,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Toro by 112.1% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 333 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 765 shares during the period. CWM LLC grew its holdings in Toro by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in Toro by 534.8% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,000 after purchasing an additional 1,123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC grew its holdings in Toro by 13.5% during the 3rd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 1,540 shares of the company’s stock valued at $134,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TTC traded up $1.53 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $78.93. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 232,112 shares, compared to its average volume of 699,203. The firm has a market cap of $7.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.72 and a beta of 0.72. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $83.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $86.55. 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 quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.94.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.95. Toro had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. Toro’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that The Toro Company will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to repurchase 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.93%. This is an increase from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s payout ratio is 37.91%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Raymond James lowered their price target on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.75.

Toro 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.