LPL Financial LLC Acquires 14,433 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 33.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 57,435 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,433 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC owned approximately 0.06% of Toro worth $4,601,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Toro by 294.4% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 24,652 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,975,000 after purchasing an additional 18,401 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its stake in shares of Toro by 111.4% in the 4th quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 51,945 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,161,000 after purchasing an additional 27,376 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Toro by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,187,550 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,123,000 after buying an additional 60,068 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Toro by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,959,875 shares of the company’s stock worth $169,639,000 after buying an additional 29,105 shares during the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in Toro by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 799,385 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,031,000 after buying an additional 24,596 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Raymond James lowered 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. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. Northland Capmk upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, StockNews.com cut Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.75.

Toro Trading Up 8.6 %

Shares of NYSE:TTC opened at $68.97 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $75.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $80.85. The Toro Company has a one year low of $62.34 and a one year 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 PE ratio of 17.20 and a beta of 0.72.

Toro Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.87%.

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.