Simon Quick Advisors LLC Has $396,000 Stock Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Simon Quick Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 8.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,946 shares of the company’s stock after selling 454 shares during the quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $396,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Lindenwold Advisors INC increased its position in shares of Toro by 2.8% in the third quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 4,612 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank raised its position in shares of Toro by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 10,060 shares of the company’s stock valued at $941,000 after buying an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC raised its position in shares of Toro by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after buying an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC now owns 15,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,318,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of Toro by 7.1% during the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 2,366 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,000 after acquiring an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:TTC opened at $86.51 on Friday. The Toro Company has a one year low of $76.95 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 company has a market cap of $8.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.57 and a beta of 0.72. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $83.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $86.13.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. Toro’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.71 EPS. Research analysts predict that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to buyback 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s payout ratio is 37.91%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Raymond James cut their target price on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.75.

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.