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

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) was the target of unusually large 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 daily volume of 65 put options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Toro

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Toro by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,491,409 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,007,070,000 after acquiring an additional 103,300 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its holdings in Toro by 3.0% in the second quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 325,053 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,396,000 after purchasing an additional 9,371 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position 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 worth $4,990,000 after purchasing an additional 11,661 shares in the last quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC grew its holdings in shares of Toro by 4.7% in the 1st quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 141,730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,987,000 after buying an additional 6,350 shares during the period. Finally, Kennedy Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Toro by 20.2% in the 1st quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 138,568 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,697,000 after buying an additional 23,270 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on TTC shares. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Toro in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Robert W. Baird cut 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. StockNews.com raised shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, DA Davidson dropped their target price 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.33.

Toro Stock Down 0.8 %

NYSE TTC opened at $84.04 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.06 and a beta of 0.68. Toro has a 52 week low of $77.15 and a 52 week high of $102.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.94. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $86.69 and a 200-day moving average of $88.70.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 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 analyst estimates of $1.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.95 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Toro will post 4.16 EPS for the current year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.80%.

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.