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

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors bought 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

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. 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 worth $55,000 after acquiring an additional 333 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. lifted its holdings in Toro by 850.0% during the third 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 during the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted 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 period. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new position in shares of Toro in the second quarter worth about $94,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of Toro by 534.8% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,000 after purchasing an additional 1,123 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Toro Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE:TTC opened at $80.85 on Thursday. Toro has a 52 week low of $77.15 and a 52 week high of $100.93. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $84.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $87.97. The firm has a market cap of $8.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.22 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.94.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) 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 25.94% and a net margin of 8.89%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share. Toro’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Toro will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.88%. This is a positive change from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.91%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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