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

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 1,176 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 1,709% compared to the average volume of 65 put options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Toro

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TTC. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in Toro by 112.1% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 333 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Toro by 850.0% in the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of Toro by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 534.8% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after buying an additional 1,123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Bay Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Toro by 87.2% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 1,657 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,000 after buying an additional 772 shares during the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Toro Price Performance

NYSE:TTC opened at $84.16 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $83.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $86.13. 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 company has a market cap of $8.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.99 and a beta of 0.72. Toro has a one year low of $76.95 and a one year high of $100.93.

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

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This is an increase from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.81%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is 37.91%.

Toro announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to repurchase 4,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Raymond James cut their target price on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Toro currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.75.

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.