Toro Q4 2025 Earnings Results & Report

Toro EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.91
• Consensus EPS: $0.86
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.05
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.95
• EPS Beat Rate: 6 of last 8 quarters

Toro Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $1.07 billion
• Expected Revenue: $1.05 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$20.86 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: -0.90%

The Toro (NYSE:TTC) Company designs, manufactures and markets equipment and services for maintaining outdoor environments. Its products serve homeowners and professional customers in areas such as landscaping, golf course and sports-field maintenance, and snow and ice management.

The company’s offerings include lawn mowers, turf and landscape maintenance equipment, irrigation systems, utility and underground construction equipment, and snow removal products. Its portfolio includes brands such as Toro, Exmark and Ditch Witch.

Founded in 1914, Toro serves customers in the United States and internationally through a network of distributors, dealers and other sales channels.

Toro Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Beat expectations and generated strong cash — consolidated Q4 net sales of $1.07 billion, full-year adjusted EPS of $4.20, and a record free cash flow of $578 million (146% conversion) while returning $441 million to shareholders.
• Positive Sentiment: Raised its AMP productivity target to $125 million run-rate by end of 2026 after realizing roughly $75–80 million to date, driven by facility consolidations, ~15% reduction in salaried workforce, and divestitures, with up to 50% of savings planned for reinvestment.
• Neutral Sentiment: Acquired Tornado Infrastructure Technologies to expand in vacuum excavation and underground construction (adds a few hundred basis points to growth and is EBITDA-accretive) but will not be fully accretive to operating margin in year one due to transaction-related costs.
• Positive Sentiment: 2026 guidance targets revenue growth of 2%–5%, adjusted EPS of $4.35–$4.50, expected gross-margin and operating-margin improvement, a higher dividend and authorization to repurchase up to six million shares, and a projected free cash flow conversion >110%.
• Negative Sentiment: Tariff exposure is a notable headwind — management estimates roughly $100 million of tariff impact in fiscal 2026 (up from ~$65 million in 2025), with steel/aluminum (232) and China-related tariffs the largest components, and some uncertainty remains despite mitigation efforts.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to The Toro Company's fourth quarter earnings conference call. My name is Gigi, and I'll be your coordinator for today. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. We will be facilitating a question and answer session towards the end of today's conference. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today's conference, Heather Hille, Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Investor Relations. Please proceed, Ms. Hille.

[Heather Hille, Head of Investor Relations at Toro Company]

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the Toro Company's fourth quarter and year-end 2025 earnings conference call. I'm Heather Hille, Head of Investor Relations. On the line with me today are Rick Olson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Edric Funk, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Angie Drake, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

[Heather Hille, Head of Investor Relations at Toro Company]

Rick, Edric, and Angie will provide an overview of our fourth quarter and full-year results, which were released earlier this morning, and discuss our priorities and outlook for fiscal 2026. Following their remarks, we'll open the phone lines for a question and answer session. As a reminder, any forward-looking statements that we make this morning are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those described in today's earnings release, investor presentation, and most recent SEC filings, and may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements.

[Heather Hille, Head of Investor Relations at Toro Company]

Also, in our remarks, we'll refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are important in evaluating the company's performance. Reconciliations of all non-GAAP numbers to the most directly comparable GAAP numbers are included in this morning's press release, which, along with the fourth quarter presentation containing supplemental information, is posted in the investor information section of our corporate website. With that, I'll turn the call over to Rick.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

Thanks, Heather, and good morning, everyone. Our team remains focused on leveraging our diverse portfolio of leading brands, controlling what we can control, and driving operational excellence. In doing so, we delivered fourth-quarter sales and adjusted EPS that exceeded our expectations, achieved full-year professional segment earnings margin of 19.4%, demonstrating the resilience and quality of our core businesses that represent about 80% of our portfolio, generated record free cash flow of $578 million, a conversion rate of 146%, returned $441 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, increased our AMP savings target to $125 million by the end of 2026, and continued investing in technology and innovation that enhance our customer productivity.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

We beat our sales expectation for the fourth quarter, reporting consolidated net sales of $1.07 billion. Fourth-quarter professional segment margin grew to 19.2%. This increase was driven by sustained momentum in the underground construction business and better-than-anticipated growth in snow and ice management. Adjusted diluted earnings per share for the fourth quarter were $0.91. This reflected year-over-year earnings improvement in both segments, offset by higher expense related to the restoration of employee incentive compensation.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

For the full year, we hit the higher end of our net sales guidance, reporting total consolidated net sales of $4.5 billion. That was down 1.6% from fiscal 2024, with a significant portion of this decrease attributable to the strategic divestitures of company-owned dealers and our Pope product line. We delivered adjusted earnings per diluted share of $4.20, beating both our current-year EPS guidance of about $4.15 and $4.17 reported last year. These results were incredibly strong, given the challenging environment of the past two years.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

Through our focus on key growth markets and deliberate actions to improve productivity, we are strengthening our competitive position and accelerating our performance. Specifically, we continue to invest in our Golf and Grounds and underground specialty construction businesses, reflecting the multi-year secular growth trajectory we anticipate for those markets. Our acquisition of Tornado Infrastructure Equipment, which closed last week, is a great example of the strategic investments we are making to better serve customers facing complex infrastructure projects.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

Tornado is a leading manufacturer of vacuum excavation and industrial equipment solutions for the underground construction, power transmission, and energy markets. Their products are designed to safely excavate around critical infrastructure to minimize the risk of damage. We are excited to expand our geographic presence and product portfolio as we welcome Tornado to the Toro Company.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

Additionally, we continue to protect both our profit margins and market competitiveness through significant productivity improvement and thoughtful net price realization. Our multi-year amplifying maximum productivity, or AMP, program has already delivered annualized run-rate cost savings of $86 million. Some of the actions that are driving these savings include strategic facility closures, reducing our operational footprint by more than 1 million sq ft, a reduction in salaried workforce of nearly 15%, and divestitures of non-core businesses and product lines totaling approximately $60 million in revenue.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

These actions, combined with thoughtful supply chain strategies and selective price increases, enabled us to mitigate the effect of tariffs and maintain strong margins in fiscal 2025. Additionally, we are pleased to announce that we are increasing our AMP run-rate savings target to $125 million or more by the end of 2026, up from our original target of at least $100 million.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

We're also carefully managing inventory levels across the spectrum from raw materials to finished goods. As our lead times have recovered to more normal levels, customers are ordering closer to need, positioning us for a clean start as we enter 2026. Largely due to improvements in working capital, our free cash flow for the year was a record $578 million. This resulted in a free cash flow conversion rate of 146%.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

We continue to launch products at the forefront of innovation in alternative power, smart connected products, and autonomous solutions that differentiate our offerings and drive significant customer value. Our autonomous GeoLink fairway mower is receiving very positive reviews. It's another excellent example of our expanding technology portfolio. In particular, golf course and commercial customers who are facing labor shortages and budget constraints have expressed their excitement about the tremendous efficiencies inherent in the mower's autonomous capabilities.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

Customers are also enthusiastic about our Toro GrandStand MULTI FORCE, a stand-on mower that allows them to attach a plow, power broom, and bagging system. The result is higher productivity across all seasons, and for landscapers and homeowners with acreage, we recently introduced our Exmark Radius, a zero-turn mower with product styling and features that mirror the highly successful Lazer Z.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

Collectively, our actions are enhancing our customers' productivity, strengthening our operations and market-leading position, and sustaining our profitable growth. I want to thank our employees and channel partners for their diligence in advancing our product innovations and technology-driven solutions and supporting our efficiency initiatives. Now, Angie will share additional insights for our fourth quarter and full-year results and provide our outlook for 2026.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

Thank you, Rick, and good morning, everyone. We delivered strong fourth-quarter results that exceeded our expectations and demonstrated the strength of our diversified portfolio, market-leading innovation, and commitment to operational excellence. As a result, our full-year 2025 sales and earnings also outperformed our guidance. Both the professional and residential segments contributed stronger-than-anticipated sales across multiple businesses, which drove favorable year-over-year operating leverage in the fourth quarter.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

Professional segment net sales in the fourth quarter were $910 million, virtually equal to last year's exceptionally strong performance. Net price realization and higher shipments of underground construction and snow and ice products nearly offset anticipated lower shipments in golf, grounds, and zero-turn mowers, as well as the impact of prior-year divestitures. Professional segment earnings for the fourth quarter were $174.7 million, up 2.9% year-over-year.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

The resulting earnings margin in the quarter was 19.2%, up 60 basis points from last year, primarily due to net price realization and productivity improvements. This was partially offset by higher material and manufacturing costs and lower net sales volume. For the full year, professional segment net sales, which comprised about 80% of the total company, rose 1.9% to $3.62 billion.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

Full-year professional segment earnings were $702.5 million, and earnings margin was 19.4%. This was up from $638.9 million and 18% in fiscal 2024, underscoring our commitment to cost improvement and our purposeful cost reduction measures. In our residential segment, fourth-quarter net sales were $147 million, which were 5.1% lower than the prior year, but exceeded our expectations due to net price realization and higher shipments of snow products, reflecting channel enthusiasm for pre-season stocking.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

Additionally, through our deliberate measures to reduce costs, improve productivity, and achieve pricing, we delivered higher-than-expected fourth-quarter residential segment earnings and outperformed prior-year results by $13 million. For the full year, residential segment net sales were $858.4 million, down 14% from prior year. Full-year earnings were $35.8 million, 4.2% of segment net sales.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

This compares with fiscal 2024 earnings and earnings margin of $78.4 million and 7.9%, respectively. Now turning to our consolidated results for the fourth quarter and full year. Consolidated net sales for the quarter of $1.07 billion were down 0.9% from Q4 last year due to lower shipments in both segments and prior-year divestitures, partially offset by net price realization. For the full year, net sales were $4.51 billion, essentially in line with 2024 net sales, adjusting for the impact of divestitures.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

Our fourth quarter adjusted gross margin of 34.5% improved from 32.3% in the prior fiscal year, primarily due to net price realization and productivity improvements, partially offset by lower net sales volume, higher material and manufacturing costs, and product mix. full-year adjusted gross margin was 34.1% compared to 33.9% in fiscal 2024. This increase was primarily due to net price realization and productivity improvements, partially offset by lower net sales volume, higher material and manufacturing costs, and inventory valuation adjustments.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

SG&A expense for both the quarter and the year was 22.5% of net sales, a 30 basis point increase from Q4 a year ago and up 80 basis points from full year 2024. The change for both periods was primarily due to lower net sales volume, partially offset by cost savings. In summary, our fourth quarter adjusted earnings per diluted share were $0.91 compared to $0.95 in the prior year.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

The change was driven by higher expenses related to restored employee incentives, mostly offset by an increase in both professional and residential segment earnings. For the full year, adjusted earnings per diluted share were $4.20 compared to $4.17 in fiscal 2024. Primary drivers include higher professional segment earnings and share repurchases, partially offset by lower residential segment earnings.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

Turning to our cash flow and balance sheets. Our free cash flow for the year was a record $587 million, a meaningful year-over-year increase that was largely due to net favorable changes in working capital. This resulted in a free cash flow conversion rate of 146%. Additionally, we returned $441 million to shareholders in fiscal 2025 through dividends and share repurchases, demonstrating continued confidence in our ability to generate cash and our commitment to value creation. Our balance sheet remains strong, and it continues to provide financial flexibility.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

Our leverage ratio of 1.3x is healthy and well within our stated target range. We continue to take a disciplined approach to capital deployment. By prioritizing strategic investments that drive profitable growth through both organic opportunities and acquisitions, we have generated strong positive momentum in our return on invested capital. Looking ahead to fiscal 2026, we are thoughtfully balancing the strengths and growth opportunities within our businesses with the ongoing pressures of the macro environment.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

We are excited about our recent acquisition of Tornado and the longer-term growth trajectory of the vacuum excavation industry, and we are poised to execute on the continued strong demand for our underground construction business. This demand is being driven by new infrastructure installation projects and ongoing maintenance of existing networks.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

We are continuing to leverage our leadership in golf course equipment and irrigation and are being proactive in attracting new customers and opportunities for our grounds business. Recent snowfall in key regions across the country is an encouraging sign, and we are prepared to capitalize on the favorable weather trends, and we remain committed to delivering on our new higher AMP target by 2027. At the same time, we remain cautious about macro factors, including inflation and interest rates, that may continue to pressure consumer confidence.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

However, we believe the steps we have taken position us well to benefit as the environment improves. For fiscal 2026, we expect annual total company net sales to rise 2%-5%, reflecting professional segment sales that are expected to grow mid-single digits and residential segment sales that are expected to decline low to mid-single digits.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

We anticipate total company adjusted gross margin to improve in 2026, underscoring the strength of our business model and our ability to navigate cost pressures while continuing to invest in innovation. And we expect this adjusted gross margin improvement, combined with our continued focus on productivity and prudent management of tariffs and other inflationary pressures, to drive higher adjusted operating earnings margin for the year.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

This total company outlook reflects a range of 18.5%-19.5% professional segment earnings margin in 2026 and a range of 6%-8% residential segment earnings margin as we build on our 2025 progress. Our guidance also reflects mid-single digit earnings growth for the near term, with a clear path to higher growth over time as we execute on margin expansion and innovation priorities.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

As a result, we expect full year 2026 adjusted earnings per diluted share to be in the range of $4.35-$4.50. This assumes interest expense of approximately $65 million and adjusted effective tax rate of about 21% and capital expenditures of $90-$100 million. Furthermore, we remain committed to returning value to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases and are confident in our ability to generate cash.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

As we announced last week, we have raised our quarterly dividend from $0.38-$0.39, and our Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to an additional six million shares of TTC's common stock. We expect to repurchase shares at a rate similar to last year and anticipate a free cash flow conversion rate of greater than 110% in 2026.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

Our outlook for first quarter performance reflects the natural seasonality of our business and our current conservative view of economic factors, including homeowner and consumer sentiment. We expect total company net sales in Q1 to be up slightly from prior year, with Pro segment sales up mid-single digits and Res segment sales down high teens. Professional segment earnings margin is expected to be flat in the quarter, and residential segment earnings margin is expected to be lower.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

For the total company, adjusted earnings per diluted share are expected to be flat to slightly lower than last year's first quarter. As a reminder, from an earnings perspective, our first quarter is typically the smallest of the fiscal year and can carry seasonal cost headwinds. With the growing traction of our AMP initiatives, we expect margin momentum to build as we move through 2026.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

Though the environment continues to pose some challenges, we are steadfast in our approach to driving operational excellence and thoughtfully managing factors within our control. We are confident this discipline, combined with continued innovations that improve our customers' productivity, will drive sustained profitable growth and deliver meaningful shareholder value. With that, I'll turn the call over to Edric.

[Edric Funk, President and COO at Toro Company]

Thank you, Angie, and good morning, everyone. As evidenced by our better-than-expected results for the year, our decisive actions are enabling us to increase the resilience of our business and to build momentum for future growth. We're strengthening our product portfolio and competitive positioning by strategically investing in technology solutions and markets with strong multi-year growth drivers like golf, grounds, and underground construction.

[Edric Funk, President and COO at Toro Company]

Our pipeline of new products and features that provide value for our customers is robust, and we're excited by the future potential of several innovations that are still early in their growth life cycle. For example, golf course superintendents will benefit from two new software-as-a-service irrigation products. Our Lynx Central Control System is a mobile version of our industry-leading platform that is changing the way superintendents manage golf course irrigation.

[Edric Funk, President and COO at Toro Company]

It gives users increased flexibility and control, allowing them to address issues in real time and to improve their efficiency through enhanced communication capabilities, both while on the move. Our AI-enabled Spatial Adjust software, which was released in November, integrates with Toro Irrigation Systems for even more precise water management. It works with Turf Guard soil moisture sensors to optimize the amount of water used on fairways, automatically recommending daily water application rates to achieve the user-defined target moisture level.

[Edric Funk, President and COO at Toro Company]

Feedback from users who participated in our pilot program was extremely positive, including frequent mention of both improved turf uniformity and playing conditions. Driven by what we expect to be a third consecutive year of record U.S. golf rounds played, we have experienced exceptional growth in golf equipment sales and irrigation projects. In addition to the continued momentum in golf, we're also increasing our focus on grounds opportunities within municipalities, universities, sports fields, and other markets.

[Edric Funk, President and COO at Toro Company]

We're also actively pursuing opportunities to capitalize on the growing demand for underground construction equipment, which is being propelled by aging infrastructure, the growth in data centers, and energy and telecommunications projects. Our Tornado acquisition is an exciting development in this space, building on our existing relationship with Tornado as a strategic supplier to Ditch Witch. It enables us to expand our reach and capitalize on accelerated growth in vacuum excavation.

[Edric Funk, President and COO at Toro Company]

Furthermore, we're executing on our commitment to operational excellence through disciplined implementation of our AMP productivity program and optimization of our global supply chain. Our efforts have helped us mitigate increases in materials and manufacturing costs, streamline our supply chain operations, and better align our production capacity with demand.

[Edric Funk, President and COO at Toro Company]

We also continue to prioritize our relationships with key partners, and we're committed to building on our legacy of engagement to ensure mutual success and customer satisfaction. Last month, we hosted our Toro University hands-on training event for more than 300 members of our distributor partners who span geographies and markets. We equipped them to sell and service our new products so that customers realize the exceptional value we collectively deliver. In addition, we recently celebrated an incredible 100-year relationship with a key distributor partner, Smith Turf and Irrigation.

[Edric Funk, President and COO at Toro Company]

This long-tenured partnership is a testament to the importance we place on building and sustaining strong relationships. As we look ahead, the factors that contributed to our growth for 111 years will continue to be critical drivers of our performance: investing in growth markets and innovation, maintaining our operational discipline and focus on productivity improvement, and keeping our customers' needs front and center with support from loyal partners. All of these remain key priorities of the Toro Company's strategy and culture, and they are absolutely foundational to our future success. Now, Rick has a few closing remarks.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

Thank you, Edric. To close, I want to emphasize our confidence in the Toro Company's trajectory. The steps we are taking to enhance our customers' performance and increase our efficiency will strengthen our competitive advantage and drive continued profitable growth.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

In addition, we are being proactive and purposeful as we maintain a disciplined approach to capital allocation, balance sheet flexibility, and strong cash flow. Together with our strategic focus on key growth markets and operational improvements, these actions give us confidence that the Toro Company is positioned to deliver significant value to all our stakeholders for many years to come. Now, Edric, Angie, and I would be happy to take your questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press Star followed by 1-1 on your touch-tone telephone. If your question has been answered or you wish to withdraw your question, please press Star followed by one one again. Please stand by for your first question. Your first question comes from the line of David MacGregor from Longbow Research.

[David MacGregor, President at Longbow Research]

Yes, good morning, everyone. Congratulations on the strong quarter.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

Thanks, David. Good morning.

[David MacGregor, President at Longbow Research]

Good morning. I wanted to start off by just asking a couple of questions around the guidance. The sales growth, 2%-5%, Tornado is going to add a couple of hundred basis points. I'm guessing you got a couple of hundred basis points of pricing in there as well. The implication for volume is still, I guess, a negative outlook. Can you just kind of walk us through the individual lines of business and just talk about the volume expectations for next year, even if just anecdotally rather than quantitatively?

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

Yeah, sure. I can walk through a few of those. First of all, yeah, you did point out a good portion of the growth on the top line is due to the Tornado acquisition. But organically, we also can see continued strength on the pro side with the underground business continuing to be strong.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

Golf will continue to be strong, as we talked about in the prepared remarks. And really starting last quarter, but again, this quarter, we see the landscape contractor, particularly the true contractors, not as much the homeowner with acreage, but the true contractors through our Exmark brand, for example, really coming back strong and contributing to growth.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

We expect that to continue. And on the residential side, this has been an extraordinary cycle that we've gone through that started at the beginning of COVID. If you could just draw that sine wave, the point where it crossed the midpoint was really the middle of 2023. So that homeowner business has kind of been in recovery since then.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

And we are at the right side of that curve on the way back, but the rate at which that happens really will be determined by things like consumer confidence, the macroeconomic environment, interest rates, and so forth. So we've built a little bit more muted expectations on that side. So it's really a combination of all of those things that is what we're looking at for next year.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

We've built in our best estimates. We've included the strong start to snow, but as that plays out through the rest of the season, that could be a positive for us if that trend continues. But we've worked everything into our guidance at this point. Does that answer your question, David?

[David MacGregor, President at Longbow Research]

Yeah. If I could just maybe drill in on the residential though for a moment. You're guiding first quarter down high teens. I'm guessing you're factoring in some kind of an improvement here because you're guiding to the full-year down low-single- to mid-single-digit. So I guess just what do you see improving in residential in Q2 through Q4? Are you expecting a restock in the channel to help you out there? Just maybe talk about how you're thinking about that guide improvement.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

Yeah. Go ahead, Angie.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

So I was just going to jump in and say, yes, we're coming in 8% down from prior year, but we do expect some continued homeowner caution, as Rick mentioned, with the macro environment continuing to be what it is. But we have seen continued progress on productivity and cost savings, which are going to help our margin a little bit. But overall, the snow, as Rick mentioned, could be favorable to us in residential, as we've seen; we've got some encouraging signs helping us right now.

[David MacGregor, President at Longbow Research]

Okay. Maybe you could shift and just ask you a couple of questions around the AMP program. You've bumped up the guide from $100 million to $125 million, so congratulations on the progress there. I mean, can you just talk about the source of the extra $25 million that wasn't in the first phase that you now see as being achievable? And do you need volume growth to get to that kind of performance?

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

Yes, thank you for asking. We continue to be really excited about the AMP initiative that we started in 2024 and did raise that target to have full run rate savings by the beginning of fiscal 2027 to $125 million.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

We're going to see that savings continue to come from the work streams that we had talked about initially, and those are really supply-based, design-to-value, route-to market, and then our operational efficiency. We made significant improvement in fiscal 2025, and we'll continue to see it just achieved better results than we expected to through fiscal 2025, and so the momentum we're going to continue to see that go forward, and we don't believe we need increased volume to get that. We've got a lot of engines working in that initiative right now and want to continue on that momentum.

[David MacGregor, President at Longbow Research]

Right, and initially, you thought you'd take 50% of the gains to the bottom line, and the other 50% would be reinvested. Could you just update us on where you are with that as of today and how that target might change, evolve with the increase in the goal to $125 million?

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

Sure. Yes. We really expect to continue the same and reinvest up to as much as 50% of that. We probably had to over-index a little bit on the investment in the last couple of years, especially in fiscal 2025, just due to the headwinds that we saw with tariffs, inflation, some transition expenses with some of our product moves and network optimization.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

But what we did continue to do is also take some of those funds and reinvest in innovation and technology to set ourselves up for future growth. So we would expect to continue to see that savings be somewhat reinvested up to the 50% level. But we have realized $75 million of those savings in fiscal 2025 and through the program to date, almost $80 million.

[David MacGregor, President at Longbow Research]

Great. Great news there. Last question for me, just how you're thinking about raw material costs for 2026. Thank you.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

Yeah. So for my raw material costs, we expect to see some inflation early in the year, maybe kind of settling out about mid-year. But overall, we've built all of those things to the best of our ability into our guidance.

[David MacGregor, President at Longbow Research]

Got it. Thanks very much.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

Thanks, David.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Joshua Wilson from Raymond James.

[Joshua Wilson, Senior Equity Research Associate at Raymond James]

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

Morning, Josh.

[Joshua Wilson, Senior Equity Research Associate at Raymond James]

First, could you run through the different product categories and give us a sense of where channel inventories currently stand?

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

We could go through each segment, but just overall, I would say, especially relative to the commentary for the last couple of years, we're in good shape from a channel inventory standpoint. Residential, it's very much tied to the earlier comments about how that flows this year and the rate of recovery.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

But really, across the board, we are in good shape from a field standpoint. That helps us, for example, when we talk about snow, that field inventory is in a good place, so we should see the benefit as snow plays out. We really saw the benefit of that in the fourth quarter, where especially our commercial contractors were seeing the outlook for snow and started to order. Because field inventory was in a better position, that directly translated into orders for us.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

On the underground side, we're back closer to a better, healthy position there, slightly lower than it should be. And the rest of the business, I would say, businesses, I would say, are in normal range. If you took an individual model here and there, it would be plus or minus from where you'd like to have it, but much closer back to normal operating with field inventory. So we're in good shape with field inventory. It's been a lot of work by a lot of people to make that happen, but we're in good shape today.

[Joshua Wilson, Senior Equity Research Associate at Raymond James]

That's good to hear. Yeah. I know you said your lead times have normalized. Could you give us a quantification of where your backlog was to end the year?

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

Yeah. We actually had backlog improved by $400 million year-over-year. We typically give those results at the end of the year. Last year, we were sitting at $1.2 billion, so had a $400 million improvement in backlog. So overall, we feel like we're in really good shape. It's probably even still a little elevated to where we thought we would be at this time last year, but very strong demand continues in golf and grounds, underground construction, and in our other businesses. One of the key points there, I think, is that our lead times have come in. So folks may not be ordering and putting their orders on as far out as they once were because, just as a reminder, that is really all open orders at a point in time.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

That really reflects our.

[Joshua Wilson, Senior Equity Research Associate at Raymond James]

Go ahead, Rick. I'm sorry.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

Go ahead, Josh.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

No, I'm sorry. Just piling on what Angie said. It really reflects our improvement in lead times. So lead times in some categories that were out two years, we're now able to deliver more closer to normal, historically, 60, 90 days type of period. So we're getting back the confidence of our customers to be able to order when they need it.

[Joshua Wilson, Senior Equity Research Associate at Raymond James]

And then looking at the 2026 margin guidance for professional of 18.5%-19.5% versus the 19.4% you just reported, what are the positives and negatives that are leading you to that range year on year?

[Edric Funk, President and COO at Toro Company]

Yeah. On the positive side, some of the same benefits that we've seen from AMP that we've talked about, some of that will be offset with mix that isn't quite as strong in 2026 as it was in 2025. And that just has a lot to do with which product lines we prioritize in production and ultimately ship to the field.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

And then the other thing I would add is just the addition of Tornado. So we will see some top-line growth from Tornado in the professional segment. However, it is not being fully accretive to the operating margin in the first year just due to acquisition costs and transaction costs. However, it is accretive to EBITDA.

[Joshua Wilson, Senior Equity Research Associate at Raymond James]

Got it. Thanks.

[Operator]

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Ted Jackson from Northland.

[Ted Jackson, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Northland Securities]

Thanks. I have a couple left. Go through that from the quarter, first of all. And I want you to know that I own two Toro Snowblowers, and they've been getting heavy use so far this year.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

Heavy use.

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

Fantastic.

[Ted Jackson, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Northland Securities]

You can't own enough. Two is not enough. So first of all, the performance, you had a step up in incentive comp this year. I mean, that's a good problem to have. When you look at your guidance for 2026, what are your assumptions around incentive comp, and how does that compare to 2025?

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

Yeah. Great question. That was a change as you look at Q4 year-over-year. Corporate expenses were a bit higher because of the easy comp that we saw in fiscal 2024 because of incentives being restored. We have built back in normal incentive plans for our fiscal 2026 plan. So those coming back in at a normal rate, which they have not been or were not over the past couple of years.

[Ted Jackson, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Northland Securities]

And what would, if we're to say a normal rate, I don't know, some kind of percentage, how would you define that just to kind of give us a baseline?

[Angie Drake, VP and CFO at Toro Company]

Well, we typically try to budget those or build those into guidance at 100%. So that is whatever those incentive targets are, that would be 100%.

[Ted Jackson, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Northland Securities]

Okay. And then I'm just shifting over to tariffs. I mean, you provided some good color with regards to your expectations of their impact for this coming fiscal year and then what you've seen in the last few fiscal years. As you kind of look through those assumptions, maybe get some highlights in terms of what's driving that and where you might see any kind of areas that you could further mitigate that impact and what that might be. And then just given how fluid tariffs have been over the last year, maybe just that confidence level you feel with regards to that outlook. That's it for me. Thank you.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

Yeah. Maybe just overarching, first of all, we've had a very focused team working on tariffs since the latter part of 2024, anticipating tariffs. Throughout 2025, as we mentioned in the remarks, we were able to offset the effect through productivity, strategic moves, and through selective price increases to be able to offset. As we look forward, in 2025 we had a total of about $65 million in tariffs.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

That included $20 million-$25 million that were there all the way back to 2018. If we look at the same number for 2026, that number is about $100 million. And it really primarily reflects a full year of the tariffs that we experienced in 2025, plus a small factor of a few additional tariffs. If you break that down for 2026, it's roughly 50%-ish. A little bit more than that is 232, primarily steel and aluminum tariffs. The second largest category would be China-related tariffs. And we have a small exposure to China.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

We systematically reduced that exposure since 2018, but still, due to the size of the tariff, it's number two, but it's somewhere in the 15%, something like that. The remainder are general tariffs across different countries, reciprocal tariffs. So that's kind of how it breaks down. With regard to variability of tariffs, we will be making sure that we understand the 232 and some of the details of how those are calculated, making sure that we're accurate and optimize, mitigate those to the best of our ability.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

And then part of what you mentioned, Ted, in terms of the unknown of tariffs is built into our guidance. So it is reflected that there could be variability. We don't have the worst case built in. We don't have a best case built in either, but it is reflected in the way that we've guided for next year.

[Ted Jackson, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Northland Securities]

Okay. Thanks for the answer, Rick. Congrats again on the quarter.

[Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO at Toro Company]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session. Ms. Hille, please proceed to closing remarks.

[Heather Hille, Head of Investor Relations at Toro Company]

Thank you, everyone, for your questions and interest in The Toro Company. We look forward to talking with you again in March to discuss our first quarter 2026 results.

[Operator]

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the presentation. You may now disconnect. Good day.

Participants

Executives

• Edric Funk, President and COO
• Rick Olson, Chairman and CEO
• Angie Drake, VP and CFO
• Heather Hille, Head of Investor Relations

Analysts

• Ted Jackson, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Northland Securities
• David MacGregor, President at Longbow Research
• Joshua Wilson, Senior Equity Research Associate at Raymond James