Toro (NYSE:TTC) Reaches New 12-Month Low – Should You Sell?

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)’s share price reached a new 52-week low on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $71.50 and last traded at $71.98, with a volume of 367222 shares. The stock had previously closed at $72.79.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Northland Capmk raised Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Raymond James lowered their price target on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Northland Securities raised Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.75.

Toro Stock Performance

The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $79.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $82.51. The company has a market cap of $7.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.23 and a beta of 0.70. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.95. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 14th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.87%.

Toro announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to buyback 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Toro

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TTC. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Toro by 45.5% during the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,031,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $563,207,000 after buying an additional 2,199,920 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in Toro by 996,664.0% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 498,382 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,410,000 after buying an additional 498,332 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Toro during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,561,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of Toro by 411.3% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 464,609 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,215,000 after purchasing an additional 373,736 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Toro by 693.0% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 414,961 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,238,000 after purchasing an additional 362,634 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

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.