The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Short Interest Down 16.2% in April

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,270,000 shares, a decrease of 16.2% from the March 31st total of 3,900,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,140,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.9 days. Approximately 3.3% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TTC has been the subject of several recent research reports. DA Davidson reduced their price target on Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Northland Securities upgraded Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Northland Capmk upgraded shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.75.

Institutional Trading of Toro

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TTC. LPL Financial LLC lifted its stake in Toro by 33.6% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 57,435 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,601,000 after purchasing an additional 14,433 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Toro by 294.4% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 24,652 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,975,000 after buying an additional 18,401 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its stake in Toro by 111.4% in the fourth quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 51,945 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,161,000 after buying an additional 27,376 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Toro by 5.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 60,068 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bell Asset Management Ltd raised its stake in shares of Toro by 72.4% during the fourth quarter. Bell Asset Management Ltd now owns 77,756 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,228,000 after acquiring an additional 32,661 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Toro Stock Up 2.2 %

TTC stock opened at $70.71 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $71.24 and its 200 day moving average is $78.81. The stock has a market cap of $7.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.63 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. Toro has a 1-year low of $62.34 and a 1-year high of $100.93.

Toro Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. Toro’s payout ratio is 38.87%.

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.