Cetera Investment Advisers Reduces Stock Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Cetera Investment Advisers lowered its position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 7.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,654 shares of the company’s stock after selling 551 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Toro were worth $533,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in shares of Toro by 33.8% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 52,934 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,240,000 after buying an additional 13,373 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Toro by 33.6% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 57,435 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,601,000 after buying an additional 14,433 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP increased its position in shares of Toro by 111.4% in the fourth quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 51,945 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,161,000 after buying an additional 27,376 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Bell Asset Management Ltd increased its position in shares of Toro by 72.4% in the fourth quarter. Bell Asset Management Ltd now owns 77,756 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,228,000 after buying an additional 32,661 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on TTC shares. Northland Securities upgraded Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Wall Street Zen cut Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. 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 research report on Friday, March 7th. Northland Capmk upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, DA Davidson lowered their price target on Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Toro presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.75.

Toro Price Performance

TTC opened at $73.87 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $70.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $77.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.81. The Toro Company has a 1 year low of $62.34 and a 1 year high of $100.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.37 billion, a PE ratio of 18.42 and a beta of 0.83.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Stockholders 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 2.06%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 17th. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.