New York State Teachers Retirement System Reduces Holdings in Toro Company (The) (NYSE:TTC)

New York State Teachers Retirement System decreased its stake in Toro Company (The) (NYSE:TTC - Free Report) by 13.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 84,103 shares of the company's stock after selling 12,700 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.08% of Toro worth $6,118,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Toro by 45.5% in the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,031,295 shares of the company's stock valued at $563,207,000 after purchasing an additional 2,199,920 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Toro in the 4th quarter worth about $36,561,000. Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its stake in Toro by 133.3% in the 1st quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 779,419 shares of the company's stock valued at $56,703,000 after acquiring an additional 445,287 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of Toro by 411.3% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 464,609 shares of the company's stock worth $37,215,000 after purchasing an additional 373,736 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Toro by 693.0% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 414,961 shares of the company's stock valued at $33,238,000 after buying an additional 362,634 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,038 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.81, for a total transaction of $356,740.78. Following the transaction, the director owned 34,062 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,411,930.22. This trade represents a 12.88% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Kurt D. Svendsen sold 6,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.99, for a total value of $425,940.00. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 11,646 shares in the company, valued at $826,749.54. This trade represents a 34.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.39% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Northland Capmk downgraded Toro from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. DA Davidson set a $76.00 price target on shares of Toro and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, June 9th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a "market perform" rating and set a $80.00 target price (down previously from $100.00) on shares of Toro in a report on Friday, June 6th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Toro from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Raymond James Financial lowered their price objective on Toro from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $82.75.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of NYSE TTC traded down $0.85 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $73.69. 609,143 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 929,974. Toro Company has a 52 week low of $62.34 and a 52 week high of $100.93. The company's 50 day moving average price is $72.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $75.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.27 billion, a PE ratio of 18.89 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.

Toro (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 5th. The company reported $1.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.35 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 27.99% and a net margin of 8.77%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.40 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 17th. Toro's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.97%.

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.