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

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Toro in a research note on Friday, September 6th. DA Davidson cut their target price on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.33.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in Toro by 112.1% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Toro in the first quarter valued at $66,000. Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 522.6% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 716 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,000 after buying an additional 601 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. grew its holdings in Toro by 850.0% during the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,000 after acquiring an additional 765 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp increased its position in Toro by 22.4% in the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 908 shares of the company’s stock valued at $85,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Stock Performance

TTC stock traded down $1.15 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $80.95. 526,523 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 871,382. Toro has a twelve month low of $77.15 and a twelve month high of $102.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.25 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $83.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $88.13.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its 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). The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.26 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 25.94% and a net margin of 8.89%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.95 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Toro will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. Toro’s payout ratio 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.