Murphy Pohlad Asset Management LLC Reduces Stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Murphy Pohlad Asset Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,759 shares of the company’s stock after selling 245 shares during the period. Murphy Pohlad Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $782,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of TTC. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in Toro by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 15,298 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,225,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC grew its stake in shares of Toro by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 4,612 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the period. Northwest Financial Advisors raised its stake in Toro by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Northwest Financial Advisors now owns 6,945 shares of the company’s stock valued at $556,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the period. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in Toro by 15.5% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Toro by 1.0% during the third quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC now owns 15,201 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,318,000 after purchasing an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Toro Stock Down 2.9 %

Shares of NYSE TTC opened at $84.26 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $83.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $86.00. The Toro Company has a 52 week low of $76.95 and a 52 week high of $100.93. The company has a market cap of $8.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.01 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.95. Toro had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.71 earnings per share. Toro’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were issued a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.80%. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.91%.

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

Toro Company 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.