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 bought 1,176 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 1,709% compared to the average volume of 65 put options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on TTC. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Toro in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 6th. DA Davidson reduced their price target on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Three 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.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.33.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of Toro stock opened at $86.90 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $83.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $87.92. Toro has a 12 month low of $77.15 and a 12 month high of $102.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.81 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.94 and a quick ratio of 0.85.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.95 EPS. Toro’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Toro will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Toro

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Arizona State Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 0.4% in the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 28,680 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,682,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 0.3% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 46,925 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,405,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 2.8% in the third quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 4,612 shares of the company’s stock valued at $400,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 1.4% in the second quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 10,060 shares of the company’s stock valued at $941,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 15.5% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.