Highlights
- Sales increase 11.5 percent for the year to a record $1.884 billion
- Professional segment net sales up 14.2 percent on improved global demand in golf, grounds and agriculture markets
- Residential segment net sales up 5.8 percent; snow products and zero-turn riding mowers up, walk mowers and electric blowers down
The Toro Company (NYSE: TTC) has reported net earnings of $117.7 million on net sales of $1.884 billion for its fiscal year ended October 31, 2011. In fiscal 2010, the company delivered net earnings of $93.2 million on net sales of $1.6904 billion.
For the fourth quarter, Toro reported net earnings of $5 million on net sales of $368.1 million. In the comparable fiscal 2010 period, the company posted net earnings of $3.2 million on net sales of $337.3 million.
With a focus on returning value to shareholders, the company has reported 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 J. Hoffman, Toro’s chairman and chief executive officer. “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. I am extremely proud of our team and their execution throughout the year. We finished the year strong and have good momentum going into fiscal 2012.”
Professional Segment Results
Professional segment net sales for the fiscal 2011 totaled $1.2391 billion, up 14.2 percent over last year. Global demand across all professional businesses remained strong, increasing the Professional segment to nearly two-thirds of total sales.
Worldwide sales of golf maintenance equipment and irrigation systems benefited from the successful introduction of new products, along with increased customer investments in course upgrades and equipment purchases.
Shipments of landscape contractor and grounds products saw gains, including strong acceptance for Toro’s innovative Groundsmaster 360 rotary mower.
Orders for micro irrigation technologies experienced significant growth on a worldwide basis driven by added production capacity and agricultural growers transitioning to more efficient methods of irrigating crops. For the fourth quarter, professional segment net sales were $216.5 million, up 5.5 percent from the comparable fiscal 2010 period.
Residential Segment Results
Residential segment net sales for fiscal 2011 totaled $623.9 million, up 5.8 percent over last year.
For the year, sales of riding products increased on demand for Toro’s new line of zero-turn mowers.
Shipments of snow products were up significantly in North America and Europe coming off last year’s strong snow season that boosted preseason orders, along with benefit from additional product placement.
Somewhat offsetting these gains were lower orders of walk power mowers and electric blowers due to unfavorable weather conditions. For the fourth quarter, residential segment net sales were $143.5 million, up 12.9 percent from the comparable fiscal 2010 period.
Business Outlook
“Looking ahead, we find ourselves at the threshold of reaching $2 billion in revenues for the first time in our history,” said Hoffman. “We remain committed to delivering against our Destination 2014 goals, and have made some important changes internally with an increased focus on quality, cost and productivity improvement. We are well-positioned to grow share in our markets with a strong lineup of innovative new products, along with the benefit of additional capacity from the investment in our new Romania operation. And, our employees are aggressively pursuing profitable revenue growth as we serve our growing global markets.”
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.
