Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Purchases 57,746 Shares of Toro Company (The) (NYSE:TTC)

Key Points

• Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board has increased its stake in Toro Company (TTC) by 188.3%, owning a total of 88,418 shares valued at approximately $6.4 million.
• Several institutional investors have modified their holdings in Toro, with Vanguard Group increasing its position by 1.6% and Kayne Anderson Rudnick boosting theirs by 45.5%.
• Toro recently reported earnings of $1.42 per share, surpassing analysts' expectations, though revenue declined by 2.3% year-over-year.

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board grew its holdings in shares of Toro Company (The) (NYSE:TTC - Free Report) by 188.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 88,418 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 57,746 shares during the period. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board owned 0.09% of Toro worth $6,432,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in TTC. LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 33.6% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 57,435 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,601,000 after buying an additional 14,433 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new stake in shares of Toro during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,421,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 30.2% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 547 shares of the company's stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Toro by 36.6% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 65,437 shares of the company's stock worth $5,242,000 after purchasing an additional 17,525 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in Toro by 11.6% during the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 3,418 shares of the company's stock worth $274,000 after purchasing an additional 355 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.95% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TTC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial dropped their target price on Toro from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 6th. DA Davidson set a $76.00 target price on Toro and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, June 9th. Northland Securities reissued 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. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Toro from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Finally, Northland Capmk cut Toro from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $82.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Toro Trading Down 0.4%

NYSE TTC traded down $0.30 on Monday, hitting $73.47. 119,488 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 962,454. Toro Company has a 52-week low of $62.34 and a 52-week high of $93.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization of $7.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.84 and a beta of 0.80. The company's 50-day moving average price is $72.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $73.97.

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

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 11th. Investors 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 yield of 2.1%. Toro's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.