Values First Advisors Inc. Acquires 110 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Values First Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 0.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,216 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 110 shares during the quarter. Values First Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Toro were worth $1,653,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Toro by 9.7% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 10,234,812 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,137,702,000 after buying an additional 903,088 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Toro by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,274,694 shares of the company’s stock worth $586,336,000 after purchasing an additional 207,532 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Toro by 25.0% in the 3rd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 4,180,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $347,378,000 after purchasing an additional 835,637 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Toro by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,350,616 shares of the company’s stock worth $341,733,000 after purchasing an additional 12,777 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Toro by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,675,185 shares of the company’s stock worth $222,308,000 after purchasing an additional 61,806 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TTC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. TheStreet raised Toro from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. DA Davidson increased their price target on Toro from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. StockNews.com cut Toro from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Toro from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $105.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Toro news, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,192 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.75, for a total value of $460,790.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 33,051 shares in the company, valued at $2,933,276.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Toro news, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,192 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.75, for a total value of $460,790.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 33,051 shares in the company, valued at $2,933,276.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Edric C. Funk sold 615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.57, for a total value of $55,085.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 1,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $93,958.93. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.62% of the company’s stock.

Toro Trading Up 2.1 %

NYSE TTC traded up $1.88 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $91.63. 629,463 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 772,214. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $92.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $88.26. The Toro Company has a 1-year low of $78.35 and a 1-year high of $111.85. The firm has a market cap of $9.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.44 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a current ratio of 2.13, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.02). Toro had a return on equity of 26.66% and a net margin of 6.53%. The business had revenue of $1 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that The Toro Company will post 4.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 12th. Investors of record on Monday, April 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 28th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is currently 52.55%.

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.