The Toro Co. last week reported net earnings of $117.7 million, or $3.70 per share, on net sales of $1,884 million for its fiscal year ended Oct. 31. In fiscal 2010, the company delivered net earnings of $93.2 million, or $2.79 per share, on net sales of $1,690.4 million.
For the fourth quarter, Toro reported net earnings of $5 million, or $0.16 per share, on net sales of $368.1 million. In the comparable fiscal 2010 period, the company posted net earnings of $3.2 million, or $0.10 per share, on net sales of $337.3 million.
With a focus on returning value to shareholders, the company reported last week that the board of directors raised its regular quarterly cash dividend to $0.22 per share from its previous quarterly dividend rate of $0.20 per share. Additionally, for fiscal 2011, the company repurchased $130 million of company stock.
“Fiscal 2011 was a very good year for The Toro Company, delivering record revenues and earnings per share,” said Michael Hoffman, Toro’s chairman and CEO. “Increased global demand across golf, grounds and agriculture markets drove further improvement in our professional businesses. Our innovation levels have never been higher, and we were successful in gaining share in many of our markets and key product categories. We finished the year strong and have good momentum going into fiscal 2012.”
The company expects net earnings for fiscal 2012 to be about $4.15 per share on a revenue increase of about 5 percent. For the first quarter, the company expects to report net earnings of about $0.58 per share.
The Toro Company, Bloomington, Minn., is a worldwide provider of turf and landscape maintenance equipment, and precision irrigation systems.
