Toro Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:TTC)

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 1,176 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 1,709% compared to the average daily volume of 65 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Toro by 45.5% during the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,031,295 shares of the company's stock worth $563,207,000 after buying an additional 2,199,920 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Toro by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,959,875 shares of the company's stock worth $169,639,000 after purchasing an additional 29,105 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Toro by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,187,550 shares of the company's stock worth $95,123,000 after purchasing an additional 60,068 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Toro by 30.3% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,121,116 shares of the company's stock worth $89,701,000 after purchasing an additional 260,746 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Toro by 17.5% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,100,503 shares of the company's stock worth $88,152,000 after purchasing an additional 164,069 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company's stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on TTC. StockNews.com lowered shares of Toro from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. Northland Securities raised shares of Toro from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Northland Capmk raised shares of Toro from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $89.75.

Toro Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of TTC traded up $0.03 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $73.09. The stock had a trading volume of 1,815,440 shares, compared to its average volume of 919,775. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market cap of $7.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.23 and a beta of 0.70. The business's fifty day moving average is $79.77 and its 200 day moving average is $82.31. Toro has a 52-week low of $71.23 and a 52-week high of $100.93.

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

Toro Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Toro's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.87%.

Toro declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.