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

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on TTC shares. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Toro from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Toro from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $98.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at Toro

In other Toro news, CEO Richard M. Olson sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.19, for a total transaction of $1,903,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 17,913 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,705,138.47. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.62% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fortitude Family Office LLC bought a new stake in Toro in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of Toro by 1,204.8% during the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 274 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the period. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Toro by 135.9% during the third quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 302 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Toro by 2,057.1% in the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 302 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in Toro in the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Stock Up 3.3 %

Toro stock opened at $91.17 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $89.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $90.49. The stock has a market cap of $9.47 billion, a PE ratio of 36.04 and a beta of 0.69. Toro has a 1-year low of $77.15 and a 1-year high of $106.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 0.87.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 6th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.11. Toro had a return on equity of 25.04% and a net margin of 6.00%. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.58 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Toro will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 18th were paid a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 18th. Toro’s payout ratio is 56.92%.

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.