Investors Purchase High Volume of Toro Put Options (NYSE:TTC)

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors purchased 1,176 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 1,709% compared to the average volume of 65 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on TTC. DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Toro from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Toro from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $98.75.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of NYSE TTC opened at $91.44 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $88.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $90.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.14 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Toro has a 52 week low of $77.15 and a 52 week high of $106.68.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 6th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.11. Toro had a net margin of 6.00% and a return on equity of 25.04%. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.58 earnings per share. Toro’s revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Toro will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 18th were paid a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 18th. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.92%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Toro

In other Toro news, CEO Richard M. Olson sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.19, for a total transaction of $1,903,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 17,913 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,705,138.47. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.62% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Values First Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Toro by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Values First Advisors Inc. now owns 17,216 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,653,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 19.5% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 742 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 25,092 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,408,000 after acquiring an additional 137 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,270 shares of the company’s stock valued at $391,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the period. Finally, PrairieView Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 13.5% in the 4th quarter. PrairieView Partners LLC now owns 1,345 shares of the company’s stock valued at $129,000 after acquiring an additional 160 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

About Toro

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.