MetLife Investment Management LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)

MetLife Investment Management LLC cut its stake in shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 53,696 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,283 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Toro were worth $4,657,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in Toro by 112.1% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Toro by 850.0% in the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its holdings in shares of Toro by 22.4% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 908 shares of the company’s stock worth $85,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the period. CWM LLC increased its position in Toro by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new position in Toro in the second quarter valued at approximately $94,000. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TTC has been the subject of several research reports. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on shares of Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of Toro in a report on Friday, September 6th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.33.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of TTC stock opened at $87.08 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $84.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $87.85. The company has a market capitalization of $8.94 billion, a PE ratio of 22.86 and a beta of 0.69. The Toro Company has a twelve month low of $77.15 and a twelve month high of $102.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by ($0.05). Toro had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.95 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that The Toro Company will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.80%.

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.