GAMMA Investing LLC Buys 205,189 Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Free Report) by 7,320.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 207,992 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 205,189 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC owned about 0.21% of Toro worth $15,131,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in TTC. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Toro by 45.5% during the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,031,295 shares of the company's stock worth $563,207,000 after purchasing an additional 2,199,920 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Toro by 996,664.0% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 498,382 shares of the company's stock worth $39,410,000 after acquiring an additional 498,332 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Toro in the fourth quarter worth approximately $36,561,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted 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 acquiring an additional 373,736 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Toro by 693.0% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 414,961 shares of the company's stock worth $33,238,000 after acquiring an additional 362,634 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen lowered Toro from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Northland Capmk lowered Toro from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday. DA Davidson cut their price objective on Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Raymond James cut their price objective on Toro from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Toro from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $83.75.

Toro Stock Down 6.6%

TTC traded down $4.87 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $68.43. The company had a trading volume of 2,430,821 shares, compared to its average volume of 952,670. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The Toro Company has a 52 week low of $62.34 and a 52 week high of $100.93. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $70.96 and its 200 day moving average price is $77.41. The company has a market capitalization of $6.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.06 and a beta of 0.83.

Toro (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The company reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.38 by $0.04. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.40 earnings per share. Toro's revenue for the quarter was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 17th. Toro's payout ratio is 38.97%.

Toro Profile

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.