Toro Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:TTC)

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors purchased 1,176 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 1,709% compared to the typical daily volume of 65 put options.

Toro Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE:TTC traded down $0.76 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $73.44. 2,111,966 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 900,039. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $80.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $83.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. Toro has a fifty-two week low of $72.18 and a fifty-two week high of $100.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.31 and a beta of 0.70.

Toro (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.95. Toro had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.71 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Toro will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

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Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were given a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.07%. This is an increase from Toro's previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro's payout ratio is 38.87%.

Toro declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to repurchase 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on TTC. StockNews.com lowered shares of Toro from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday. Northland Capmk raised shares of Toro from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Raymond James decreased their price target on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 20th. Northland Securities raised shares of Toro from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $100.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $91.75.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Toro by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 15,298 shares of the company's stock worth $1,225,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the period. Lindenwold Advisors INC lifted its position in shares of Toro by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 4,612 shares of the company's stock worth $400,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. lifted its position in shares of Toro by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. now owns 11,473 shares of the company's stock worth $923,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Toro by 30.2% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 547 shares of the company's stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the period. Finally, Northwest Financial Advisors lifted its position in shares of Toro by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Northwest Financial Advisors now owns 6,945 shares of the company's stock valued at $556,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company's stock.

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.