The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Raises Dividend to $0.38 Per Share

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 10th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be paid a dividend of 0.38 per share on Monday, January 13th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 23rd. This is a positive change from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36.

Toro has raised its dividend by an average of 10.9% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 21 consecutive years. Toro has a payout ratio of 33.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Toro to earn $4.59 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.52 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 33.1%.

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of Toro stock opened at $81.48 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.94 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $84.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $88.03. Toro has a fifty-two week low of $77.15 and a fifty-two week high of $100.93. The firm has a market cap of $8.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.39 and a beta of 0.70.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95. Toro had a return on equity of 25.94% and a net margin of 8.89%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Toro will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Toro in a report on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com raised Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. DA Davidson cut their target price on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Raymond James lowered their price target on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.75.

Toro declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to repurchase 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.