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

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors purchased 1,176 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 1,709% compared to the typical volume of 65 put options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Raymond James dropped their price objective 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $93.75.

Toro Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of TTC traded up $2.36 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $86.51. 655,285 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 733,306. The firm's fifty day moving average is $83.18 and its 200-day moving average is $86.13. Toro has a 1 year low of $76.95 and a 1 year high of $100.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.57 and a beta of 0.72. 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 (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.95. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Toro will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is a positive change from Toro's previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. Toro's dividend payout ratio is presently 37.91%.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Toro

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TTC. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in Toro by 112.1% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company's stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 333 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its position in shares of Toro by 850.0% during the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company's stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 765 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its position in Toro by 15.5% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company's stock worth $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Toro by 534.8% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company's stock worth $125,000 after purchasing an additional 1,123 shares during the period. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its holdings in Toro by 13.5% in the 3rd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 1,540 shares of the company's stock valued at $134,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.