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

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 1,176 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 1,709% compared to the average daily volume of 65 put options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on TTC. StockNews.com upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. DA Davidson lowered their price target 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 reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Toro in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.33.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 27.8% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 47,912 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,989,000 after buying an additional 10,409 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in Toro by 79.2% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 17,646 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,530,000 after acquiring an additional 7,798 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Toro by 23.8% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 17,245 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,468,000 after acquiring an additional 3,316 shares in the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Toro by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,168 shares of the company’s stock valued at $882,000 after purchasing an additional 298 shares during the period. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Toro in the 3rd quarter valued at about $592,000. Institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Price Performance

TTC opened at $86.88 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $83.96 and a 200 day moving average of $87.91. The stock has a market cap of $8.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.80 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. Toro has a 52-week low of $77.15 and a 52-week high of $102.00.

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 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.95 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Toro will post 4.16 EPS for the current year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The company 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 of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. 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.