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

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 1,176 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 1,709% compared to the average volume of 65 put options.

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of Toro stock opened at $87.03 on Thursday. Toro has a one year low of $77.15 and a one year high of $102.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.94 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $88.85 and its 200-day moving average is $89.18. The firm has a market cap of $8.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.29 and a beta of 0.69.

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

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Toro’s payout ratio is 56.92%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on TTC shares. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 6th. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Toro in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Toro has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.33.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Toro

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TTC. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,491,409 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,007,070,000 after buying an additional 103,300 shares in the last quarter. Cim LLC bought a new stake in Toro in the fourth quarter worth approximately $12,882,000. Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its stake in shares of Toro by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 325,053 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,396,000 after acquiring an additional 9,371 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 27.2% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 54,458 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,990,000 after purchasing an additional 11,661 shares during the period. Finally, 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 worth $309,620,000 after buying an additional 18,899 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.