The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Shares Acquired by Benjamin Edwards Inc.

Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 6,995.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 74,005 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 72,962 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc. owned 0.07% of Toro worth $6,418,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 24.5% in the third quarter. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. now owns 144,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,527,000 after purchasing an additional 28,453 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its stake in Toro by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 325,053 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,396,000 after buying an additional 9,371 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc purchased a new position in Toro during the 1st quarter worth $1,139,000. Raymond James & Associates lifted its stake in shares of Toro by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 278,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,172,000 after acquiring an additional 14,950 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Toro by 5.2% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 200,456 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,386,000 after acquiring an additional 9,998 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:TTC opened at $86.35 on Wednesday. The Toro Company has a 12 month low of $77.15 and a 12 month high of $102.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.66 and a beta of 0.70. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $84.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $87.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.94 and a quick ratio of 0.85.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by ($0.05). Toro had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.95 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The Toro Company will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were given a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.80%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TTC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 6th. DA Davidson decreased their price target on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Toro in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.33.

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.