New York State Common Retirement Fund Buys 37,137 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its stake in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 26.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 178,158 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 37,137 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Toro were worth $14,270,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Asset Planning Inc bought a new position in shares of Toro during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Toro by 195.7% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 547 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 362 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in Toro by 15.5% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in Toro by 534.8% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after purchasing an additional 1,123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PrairieView Partners LLC grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 198 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Stock Performance

Toro stock opened at $79.95 on Monday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $81.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $84.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The company has a market cap of $8.05 billion, a PE ratio of 19.94 and a beta of 0.72. The Toro Company has a twelve month low of $76.95 and a twelve month high of $100.93.

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

Toro announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to repurchase 4,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Raymond James reduced their target price on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target 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.