Empowered Funds LLC Has $2.83 Million Stock Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 1,395.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 35,376 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 33,010 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $2,834,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in TTC. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Toro during the 4th quarter worth about $1,779,000. Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Toro by 27.7% in the fourth quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $793,000 after acquiring an additional 2,150 shares during the last quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management raised its holdings in Toro by 35.5% during the fourth quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 4,330 shares of the company’s stock worth $347,000 after acquiring an additional 1,134 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Toro by 36.1% during the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 10,052 shares of the company’s stock valued at $805,000 after purchasing an additional 2,664 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Toro by 59.9% in the fourth quarter. Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,973 shares of the company’s stock valued at $320,000 after purchasing an additional 1,489 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Raymond James dropped their price objective on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Toro currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.75.

Toro Trading Up 1.2 %

Toro stock opened at $80.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.81. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $82.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $84.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.99 and a beta of 0.72. The Toro Company has a 52 week low of $76.95 and a 52 week high of $100.93.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.95. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.71 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that The Toro Company will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.91%.

Toro declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to repurchase 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are 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.