Toro Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:TTC)

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Traders acquired 1,176 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 1,709% compared to the average volume of 65 put options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on TTC shares. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Toro in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 6th. DA Davidson decreased their target price on shares of Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com raised Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Raymond James reduced their price objective on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Toro currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.75.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of TTC opened at $80.85 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.22 and a beta of 0.70. Toro has a twelve month low of $77.15 and a twelve month high of $100.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $84.01 and a 200 day moving average of $87.97.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.95. Toro had a return on equity of 25.94% and a net margin of 8.89%. The firm 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 business earned $0.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Toro will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be paid a $0.38 dividend. This is an increase from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.91%.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Toro

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in shares of Toro by 112.1% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 333 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its position in shares of Toro by 850.0% in the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares during the period. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in shares of Toro during the 2nd quarter valued at $94,000. CWM LLC lifted its stake in shares of Toro by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after buying an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in Toro by 534.8% in 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 during the period. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.