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

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) saw some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 1,176 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 1,709% compared to the typical volume of 65 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Select Equity Group L.P. grew its stake in shares of Toro by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 5,519,407 shares of the company’s stock worth $516,120,000 after purchasing an additional 88,536 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Toro by 1.4% in the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 4,766,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $445,673,000 after buying an additional 65,800 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Toro by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,959,875 shares of the company’s stock worth $169,639,000 after acquiring an additional 29,105 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Toro by 13.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 901,346 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,279,000 after acquiring an additional 110,330 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in shares of Toro by 11.7% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 618,986 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,685,000 after purchasing an additional 64,660 shares in the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on TTC shares. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Toro in a research note on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on shares of Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note 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 report on Friday, September 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Toro currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.33.

Toro Stock Performance

TTC opened at $86.88 on Friday. 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 has a 12-month low of $77.15 and a 12-month high of $102.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $83.96 and a two-hundred day moving average of $87.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.91 billion, a PE ratio of 22.80 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). 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 period last year, the business earned $0.95 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Toro will post 4.16 EPS for the current year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.80%.

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.