Ieq Capital LLC Invests $2.25 Million in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Ieq Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 28,110 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,252,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in Toro by 996,664.0% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 498,382 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,410,000 after buying an additional 498,332 shares in the last quarter. Nuance Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Toro in the third quarter worth approximately $29,146,000. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC lifted its position in Toro by 71.2% in the third quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 217,739 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,885,000 after purchasing an additional 90,538 shares during the period. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in Toro by 945.5% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 82,111 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,577,000 after purchasing an additional 74,257 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its position in shares of Toro by 6,995.4% during the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 74,005 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,418,000 after purchasing an additional 72,962 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Toro Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:TTC opened at $79.95 on Monday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $8.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.94 and a beta of 0.72. The Toro Company has a 1-year low of $76.95 and a 1-year high of $100.93. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $81.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $84.27.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.95. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. The company’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.71 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to repurchase 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Raymond James cut their price objective on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Toro has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.75.

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.