Toro Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:TTC)

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders purchased 1,176 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 1,709% compared to the average daily volume of 65 put options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on TTC. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Toro in a research report on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. 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 report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Toro has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.33.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Toro

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in TTC. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in shares of Toro by 112.1% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Toro in the first quarter worth approximately $66,000. Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Toro by 522.6% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 716 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,000 after acquiring an additional 601 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. grew its position in shares of Toro by 850.0% during the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 765 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp increased its stake in shares of Toro by 22.4% in the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 908 shares of the company’s stock worth $85,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of TTC stock opened at $82.69 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $83.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $88.22. Toro has a 52 week low of $77.15 and a 52 week high of $102.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.48 billion, a PE ratio of 21.70 and a beta of 0.69.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.23 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.26 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 25.94% and a net margin of 8.89%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.95 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Toro will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is 37.80%.

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.