Willis Investment Counsel Increases Stock Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Willis Investment Counsel grew its stake in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 94.4% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 8,843 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,295 shares during the period. Willis Investment Counsel’s holdings in Toro were worth $643,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Toro by 45.5% in the 4th quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,031,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $563,207,000 after acquiring an additional 2,199,920 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in Toro by 5.3% in 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 buying an additional 60,068 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 260,746 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Toro by 17.5% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,100,503 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,152,000 after purchasing an additional 164,069 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Toro by 36.9% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,081,782 shares of the company’s stock valued at $86,651,000 after acquiring an additional 291,593 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:TTC opened at $69.68 on Friday. The Toro Company has a fifty-two week low of $62.34 and a fifty-two week high of $100.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.38 and a beta of 0.83. The business has a 50-day moving average of $71.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $77.04.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The company reported $1.42 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.35 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. Toro’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.40 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be paid a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 17th. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is 38.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Toro

In related news, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,038 shares of Toro stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.81, for a total transaction of $356,740.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 34,062 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,411,930.22. This trade represents a 12.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.39% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James lowered their price target on shares of Toro from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Northland Capmk lowered Toro from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Wall Street Zen lowered Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Toro from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Finally, Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $80.00 target price (down from $100.00) on shares of Toro in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $82.75.

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.