Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. Acquires 3,800 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 14.3% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 30,419 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,800 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Toro were worth $2,638,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of TTC. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 0.4% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 28,680 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,682,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Toro by 0.3% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 46,925 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,405,000 after buying an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 2.8% during the third quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 4,612 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,000 after buying an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Toro by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 10,060 shares of the company’s stock worth $941,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC grew its position in Toro by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on TTC. DA Davidson cut their price objective on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Robert W. Baird lowered 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. Finally, Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Toro in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Toro presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $93.33.

Toro Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of TTC opened at $88.32 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.06 billion, a PE ratio of 23.18 and a beta of 0.70. The Toro Company has a 12-month low of $77.15 and a 12-month high of $102.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $84.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $87.96.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.72%. This is an increase from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s payout ratio is 37.80%.

Toro announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Toro Company 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.