Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC Trims Stake in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC trimmed its position in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 5.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 11,226 shares of the company’s stock after selling 700 shares during the quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $1,029,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in TTC. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Toro in the fourth quarter valued at about $103,785,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Toro by 73.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,845,724 shares of the company’s stock valued at $177,171,000 after buying an additional 783,794 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in Toro by 334.2% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 818,260 shares of the company’s stock worth $78,545,000 after purchasing an additional 629,820 shares in the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Toro by 250.5% during the fourth quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 459,717 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,128,000 after purchasing an additional 328,550 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in Toro by 11.5% in the 1st quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,725,651 shares of the company’s stock valued at $249,751,000 after buying an additional 280,855 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of TTC traded up $0.76 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $96.76. 1,055,521 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 912,681. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $90.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $90.61. The Toro Company has a twelve month low of $77.15 and a twelve month high of $104.70. The company has a market cap of $10.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.25 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 6th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.11. Toro had a net margin of 6.00% and a return on equity of 25.04%. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.58 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 18th were given a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 18th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.49%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.92%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Toro from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Toro has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $98.75.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Richard M. Olson sold 20,000 shares of Toro stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.19, for a total value of $1,903,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 17,913 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,705,138.47. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.62% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.