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

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TTC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Northland Securities reaffirmed a "market perform" rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of Toro in a report on Friday, September 6th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Toro from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, DA Davidson cut their price target on shares of Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $93.33.

Institutional Trading of Toro

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 24.5% in the third quarter. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. now owns 144,438 shares of the company's stock valued at $12,527,000 after purchasing an additional 28,453 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its stake in shares of Toro by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 325,053 shares of the company's stock worth $30,396,000 after acquiring an additional 9,371 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc purchased a new position in shares of Toro during the 1st quarter worth $1,139,000. Raymond James & Associates boosted its position in shares of Toro by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 278,700 shares of the company's stock valued at $24,172,000 after acquiring an additional 14,950 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Toro by 5.2% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 200,456 shares of the company's stock valued at $17,386,000 after purchasing an additional 9,998 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company's stock.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of Toro stock traded up $0.70 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $86.88. 471,874 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 859,064. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.91 billion, a PE ratio of 22.80 and a beta of 0.69. The business has a 50-day moving average of $83.96 and a 200 day moving average of $87.91. Toro has a fifty-two week low of $77.15 and a fifty-two week high of $102.00. 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 (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.95 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Toro will post 4.16 EPS for the current year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. Toro's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.