Toro (NYSE:TTC) Sets New 1-Year Low – Should You Sell?

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC)’s stock price hit a new 52-week low during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $71.99 and last traded at $72.12, with a volume of 194824 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $73.25.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on TTC shares. DA Davidson dropped their target price on Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Raymond James dropped their target price on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com lowered Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Northland Securities upgraded Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Northland Capmk upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.75.

Toro Trading Down 1.9 %

The company has a market cap of $7.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.92 and a beta of 0.70. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $80.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $83.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

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 analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Toro Company will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Toro declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Toro by 45.5% during the 4th quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,031,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $563,207,000 after purchasing an additional 2,199,920 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Toro by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,959,875 shares of the company’s stock valued at $169,639,000 after purchasing an additional 29,105 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Toro by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,187,550 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,123,000 after purchasing an additional 60,068 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its position in Toro by 30.3% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,121,116 shares of the company’s stock valued at $89,701,000 after purchasing an additional 260,746 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Toro by 17.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,100,503 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,152,000 after purchasing an additional 164,069 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% 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.