Teacher Retirement System of Texas Cuts Stock Position in Toro Company (The) (NYSE:TTC)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas cut its holdings in Toro Company (The) (NYSE:TTC - Free Report) by 43.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 27,230 shares of the company's stock after selling 21,031 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas' holdings in Toro were worth $1,981,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of TTC. M&T Bank Corp grew its position in shares of Toro by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 9,817 shares of the company's stock valued at $786,000 after purchasing an additional 1,070 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Toro in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,561,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Toro by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 20,359 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,631,000 after purchasing an additional 867 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in shares of Toro by 68.7% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 62,762 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,027,000 after purchasing an additional 25,561 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Toro in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $402,000. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Toro news, VP Kurt D. Svendsen sold 6,000 shares of Toro stock in a transaction on 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 owned 11,646 shares in the company, valued at $826,749.54. This trade represents a 34.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,038 shares of the firm's 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 completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 34,062 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,411,930.22. This represents a 12.88% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Toro Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of TTC traded down $0.85 on Friday, hitting $75.09. 662,797 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 925,857. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.25 and a beta of 0.81. The stock's 50 day moving average is $73.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $75.02. Toro Company has a 1 year low of $62.34 and a 1 year high of $100.93.

Toro (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The company reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.35 billion. Toro had a net margin of 8.77% and a return on equity of 27.99%. Toro's revenue for the quarter was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.40 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th were issued a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 17th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.02%. Toro's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.97%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Northland Securities reiterated a "market perform" rating and issued a $80.00 price target (down from $100.00) on shares of Toro in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Raymond James Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Toro from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Toro from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Toro from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $76.00 price objective on shares of Toro and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $82.75.

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.