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

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors acquired 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

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Toro from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on Toro from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Toro from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $98.75.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of TTC opened at $88.26 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.89 and a beta of 0.69. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $89.22 and its 200-day moving average is $90.49. Toro has a one year low of $77.15 and a one year high of $106.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.93.

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

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 18th were issued a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 18th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Toro’s payout ratio is currently 56.92%.

Insider Transactions 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 stock was sold at an average price of $95.19, for a total value of $1,903,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 17,913 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,705,138.47. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.62% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Toro by 0.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,565,128 shares of the company’s stock worth $968,083,000 after acquiring an additional 73,719 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Toro by 25.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,653,109 shares of the company’s stock worth $609,626,000 after purchasing an additional 1,332,248 shares in the last quarter. Mairs & Power Inc. raised its stake in Toro by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Mairs & Power Inc. now owns 3,225,547 shares of the company’s stock valued at $309,620,000 after purchasing an additional 18,899 shares during the period. Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 11.5% in the first quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,725,651 shares of the company’s stock valued at $249,751,000 after purchasing an additional 280,855 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Toro by 73.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,845,724 shares of the company’s stock worth $177,171,000 after buying an additional 783,794 shares during the period. 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.