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

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on TTC. TheStreet raised shares of Toro from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. DA Davidson raised their price target on shares of Toro from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Toro from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Toro has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $105.60.

Toro Stock Down 1.8 %

Toro stock opened at $84.28 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.80 billion, a PE ratio of 30.76 and a beta of 0.72. The company’s 50-day moving average is $90.69 and its 200-day moving average is $88.83. Toro has a fifty-two week low of $78.35 and a fifty-two week high of $108.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 0.86.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.02). Toro had a net margin of 6.53% and a return on equity of 26.66%. The company had revenue of $1 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Toro will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 1st were given a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 28th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. Toro’s payout ratio is presently 52.55%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,192 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.75, for a total value of $460,790.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 33,051 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,933,276.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Toro news, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,192 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.75, for a total transaction of $460,790.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 33,051 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,933,276.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Edric C. Funk sold 615 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.57, for a total transaction of $55,085.55. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 1,049 shares in the company, valued at $93,958.93. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.62% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TTC. Durable Capital Partners LP bought a new stake in shares of Toro during the 1st quarter worth approximately $150,798,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Toro by 29.5% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,067,162 shares of the company’s stock valued at $573,603,000 after acquiring an additional 1,154,233 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Toro in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $103,785,000. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of Toro by 9.7% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 10,234,812 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,137,702,000 after buying an additional 903,088 shares during the period. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Toro by 25.0% during the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 4,180,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $347,378,000 after buying an additional 835,637 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

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.