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

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 1,176 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 1,709% compared to the average daily volume of 65 put options.

Toro Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE TTC opened at $80.85 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.22 and a beta of 0.70. Toro has a one year low of $77.15 and a one year high of $100.93. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $84.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $87.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.94 and a quick ratio of 0.85.

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 net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Toro will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Increases Dividend

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

Toro announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on TTC. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Toro in a research report on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. DA Davidson decreased their price objective 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. Robert W. Baird cut 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. Finally, Raymond James decreased their price target on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.75.

Institutional Trading of Toro

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Toro by 27.8% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 47,912 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,989,000 after buying an additional 10,409 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in Toro by 79.2% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 17,646 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,530,000 after acquiring an additional 7,798 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Toro by 23.8% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 17,245 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,468,000 after acquiring an additional 3,316 shares in the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Toro by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,168 shares of the company’s stock valued at $882,000 after purchasing an additional 298 shares during the period. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in Toro during the 3rd quarter valued at $592,000. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.