Teacher Retirement System of Texas Acquires Shares of 48,261 The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 48,261 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,866,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of TTC. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Toro by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,959,875 shares of the company’s stock valued at $169,639,000 after purchasing an additional 29,105 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,187,550 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,123,000 after acquiring an additional 60,068 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its stake in Toro by 30.3% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,121,116 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,701,000 after acquiring an additional 260,746 shares during the period. King Luther Capital Management Corp boosted its holdings in Toro by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 1,043,833 shares of the company’s stock valued at $83,611,000 after acquiring an additional 36,750 shares in the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE increased its position in Toro by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 799,385 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,031,000 after purchasing an additional 24,596 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on TTC shares. Northland Securities raised shares of Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. DA Davidson cut their price objective on Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. StockNews.com lowered Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Northland Capmk upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.75.

Toro Price Performance

TTC stock opened at $74.39 on Tuesday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $7.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.55 and a beta of 0.70. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $79.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $82.19. The Toro Company has a 52-week low of $71.23 and a 52-week high of $100.93.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.87%.

Toro declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to repurchase 4,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors 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.