Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Toro Put Options (NYSE:TTC)

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors acquired 1,176 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 1,709% compared to the average volume of 65 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TTC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Toro in a report on Friday, September 6th. DA Davidson reduced their price objective on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $93.33.

Toro Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:TTC opened at $86.90 on Thursday. Toro has a 12-month low of $77.15 and a 12-month high of $102.00. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $83.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $87.92. The company has a market capitalization of $8.92 billion, a PE ratio of 22.81 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

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

Toro Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. Toro’s payout ratio is presently 37.80%.

Institutional Trading of Toro

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. grew its stake in Toro by 24.5% during the 3rd quarter. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. now owns 144,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,527,000 after purchasing an additional 28,453 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its stake in Toro by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 325,053 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,396,000 after purchasing an additional 9,371 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc purchased a new stake in Toro during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,139,000. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in shares of Toro by 5.7% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 278,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,172,000 after buying an additional 14,950 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Toro by 5.2% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 200,456 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,386,000 after buying an additional 9,998 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.