The Toro Company (TTC): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Since The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) has faced a declination in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there were a few money managers who were dropping their positions entirely in the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Roger Ibbotson’s Zebra Capital Management dumped the biggest investment of all the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, worth close to $1 million in stock, and Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $0.6 million worth of TTC shares. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC). These stocks are Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE:HPT), Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG), NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR), and Molina Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:MOH). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble TTC’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 26 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $423 million. That figure was $184 million in TTC’s case, significantly lower than the average. NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR) is the most popular stock in this table, while Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) is at the other end of the specter with only 16 bullish hedge fund positions. The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) is not the least popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard NCR might be a better candidate to consider a long position.