AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC Invests $382,000 in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 4,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $382,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of TTC. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co acquired a new stake in Toro in the 4th quarter valued at about $883,000. Korea Investment CORP increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 217.2% in the fourth quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 90,259 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,230,000 after purchasing an additional 61,800 shares in the last quarter. Nuance Investments LLC raised its position in Toro by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 386,160 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,931,000 after purchasing an additional 50,103 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its holdings in Toro by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 58,323 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,672,000 after buying an additional 4,636 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Modern Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Toro by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC now owns 25,168 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,015,000 after buying an additional 1,214 shares during the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James cut their price target on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 7th. DA Davidson dropped their price target on shares of Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Northland Capmk raised shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.75.

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:TTC opened at $73.29 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.28 and a beta of 0.70. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $79.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $81.98. 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 Toro Company has a fifty-two week low of $71.23 and a fifty-two week high of $100.93.

Toro Announces Dividend

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

Toro announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to repurchase 4,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.