California Public Employees Retirement System Cuts Stock Position in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

California Public Employees Retirement System cut its holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Free Report) by 3.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 259,534 shares of the company's stock after selling 10,097 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.25% of Toro worth $24,913,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of TTC. Fortitude Family Office LLC purchased a new position in Toro during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC raised its position in shares of Toro by 135.9% in the 3rd quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 302 shares of the company's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. Orion Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Toro in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Millburn Ridgefield Corp purchased a new stake in Toro during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Toro during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TTC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Toro from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. TheStreet upgraded Toro from a "c+" rating to a "b-" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their price objective on Toro from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $105.60.

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TTC traded up $0.39 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $87.89. 416,172 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 716,804. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.93 and a beta of 0.72. The Toro Company has a one year low of $78.35 and a one year high of $108.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 2.13. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $89.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $88.98.

Toro (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.02). Toro had a net margin of 6.53% and a return on equity of 26.66%. The firm had revenue of $1 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. The firm's revenue was down 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that The Toro Company will post 4.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 1st were issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 28th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. Toro's dividend payout ratio is currently 52.55%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,192 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.75, for a total value of $460,790.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 33,051 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,933,276.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,192 shares of Toro stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.75, for a total transaction of $460,790.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 33,051 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,933,276.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Edric C. Funk sold 615 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.57, for a total transaction of $55,085.55. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 1,049 shares of the company's stock, valued at $93,958.93. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.62% of the company's stock.

Toro Company 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.