Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Decreases Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund trimmed its position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,882 shares of the company’s stock after selling 300 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Toro were worth $1,673,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of TTC. Asset Planning Inc purchased a new position in shares of Toro during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 195.7% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 547 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 54.6% during the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 807 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,000 after buying an additional 285 shares in the last quarter. PrairieView Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 14.7% during the 4th quarter. PrairieView Partners LLC now owns 1,547 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Bay Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 87.2% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 1,657 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,000 after buying an additional 772 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Toro Price Performance

TTC opened at $80.06 on Friday. 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 Toro Company has a 52-week low of $76.95 and a 52-week high of $100.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.06 billion, a PE ratio of 19.96 and a beta of 0.72. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $81.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $84.10.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.95. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Toro declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to buyback 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on TTC. Northland Capmk raised Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Raymond James decreased their price target on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Northland Securities raised Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Toro has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $93.75.

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.