Cerity Partners LLC Invests $530,000 in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Cerity Partners LLC bought a new position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 5,518 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $530,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in TTC. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Toro by 25.0% during the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 4,180,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $347,378,000 after acquiring an additional 835,637 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Toro by 249.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,061,930 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,246,000 after acquiring an additional 757,641 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Toro by 20.3% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,209,725 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,528,000 after acquiring an additional 204,542 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Toro by 2,481.2% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 74,985 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,231,000 after acquiring an additional 72,080 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank increased its stake in Toro by 99.5% during the third quarter. Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank now owns 129,240 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,740,000 after acquiring an additional 64,446 shares during the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. TheStreet raised Toro from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. StockNews.com downgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, DA Davidson lifted their target price on Toro from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.60.

Toro Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE TTC opened at $87.17 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $89.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $88.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.81 and a beta of 0.72. The Toro Company has a 52-week low of $78.35 and a 52-week high of $108.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 2.13.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $1 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 26.66% and a net margin of 6.53%. Toro’s quarterly revenue was down 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Investors of record on Monday, April 1st were issued a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 28th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Toro’s payout ratio is currently 52.55%.

Insider Activity at Toro

In related news, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,192 shares of Toro stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.75, for a total value of $460,790.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 33,051 shares in the company, valued at $2,933,276.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, VP Edric C. Funk sold 615 shares of Toro stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.57, for a total value of $55,085.55. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 1,049 shares in the company, valued at $93,958.93. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,192 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.75, for a total transaction of $460,790.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 33,051 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,933,276.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.62% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.