Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Acquires 32,598 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 10.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 330,748 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 32,598 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. owned about 0.33% of Toro worth $26,493,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in TTC. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Toro by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 15,298 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,225,000 after buying an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. now owns 11,473 shares of the company’s stock worth $923,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. Northwest Financial Advisors raised its holdings in Toro by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Northwest Financial Advisors now owns 6,945 shares of the company’s stock worth $556,000 after buying an additional 139 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 3,293 shares of the company’s stock worth $264,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,216 shares of the company’s stock valued at $258,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE TTC opened at $73.29 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $79.00 and its 200 day moving average is $81.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.28 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.81. The Toro Company has a 52 week low of $71.23 and a 52 week high of $100.93.

Toro declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to repurchase 4,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 14th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.07%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.87%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on TTC. Raymond James reduced their target price 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. Northland Securities raised shares of Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. DA Davidson decreased their target price 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 Capmk upgraded 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 note on Tuesday, March 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Toro has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.75.

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.