BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S Raises Stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S boosted its position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 41.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,565 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,636 shares during the quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S’s holdings in Toro were worth $534,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in TTC. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Toro by 2.2% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 269,631 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,406,000 after purchasing an additional 5,835 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Toro by 253.2% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 498 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Toro by 2.5% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 25,118 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,087,000 after acquiring an additional 603 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Toro by 15.1% in the third quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 42,813 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,558,000 after acquiring an additional 5,612 shares during the period. Finally, Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Toro by 11.7% in the third quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,022 shares of the company’s stock worth $251,000 after acquiring an additional 317 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on TTC shares. StockNews.com downgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. DA Davidson raised their price target on Toro from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, TheStreet raised Toro from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $98.75.

Toro Trading Down 3.7 %

Shares of NYSE:TTC opened at $83.09 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.32 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 2.13. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $88.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $89.58. The Toro Company has a 52-week low of $78.35 and a 52-week high of $106.68.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $1 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 26.66% and a net margin of 6.53%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. Analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.3 EPS for the current year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be given a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 18th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.73%. Toro’s payout ratio is currently 52.55%.

Insider Activity

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