Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Reduces Stock Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. decreased its position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 9.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,846 shares of the company’s stock after selling 202 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Toro were worth $148,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of TTC. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its position in Toro by 850.0% during the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC raised its stake in shares of Toro by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,000 after buying an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of Toro by 534.8% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after buying an additional 1,123 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC grew its stake in Toro by 87.2% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 1,657 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,000 after acquiring an additional 772 shares during the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC increased its holdings in Toro by 13.5% during the 3rd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 1,540 shares of the company’s stock valued at $134,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Raymond James reduced their price target on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.75.

Toro Stock Up 1.2 %

TTC opened at $80.18 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $8.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.99 and a beta of 0.72. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $82.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $84.90. The Toro Company has a 52 week low of $76.95 and a 52 week high of $100.93. 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.95. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. Toro had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.71 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This is a positive change from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.91%.

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

About Toro

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.