New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 9,815 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lowered its position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 6.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 135,686 shares of the company’s stock after selling 9,815 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Toro were worth $13,024,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Values First Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Values First Advisors Inc. now owns 17,216 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,653,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp raised its position in Toro by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 5,030 shares of the company’s stock worth $418,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its stake in Toro by 30.2% during the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 621 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the period. PrairieView Partners LLC lifted its stake in Toro by 13.5% during the 4th quarter. PrairieView Partners LLC now owns 1,345 shares of the company’s stock valued at $129,000 after acquiring an additional 160 shares during the period. Finally, Willis Investment Counsel boosted its holdings in shares of Toro by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Willis Investment Counsel now owns 3,660 shares of the company’s stock valued at $351,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of TTC stock opened at $87.89 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The company has a market cap of $9.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.08 and a beta of 0.72. The Toro Company has a 1 year low of $78.35 and a 1 year high of $108.50. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $89.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $89.00.

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

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Investors of record on Monday, April 1st were issued a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 28th. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is 52.55%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,192 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,933,276.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, VP Edric C. Funk sold 615 shares of Toro stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.57, for a total transaction of $55,085.55. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 1,049 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $93,958.93. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,192 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 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 owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TTC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Toro from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. TheStreet upgraded Toro from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Toro from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Toro has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.60.

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.