Toro Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:TTC)

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 1,176 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 1,709% compared to the average volume of 65 put options.

Institutional Trading of Toro

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TTC. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in Toro in the second quarter valued at approximately $284,000. Cim LLC raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 3.1% in the second quarter. Cim LLC now owns 144,267 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,490,000 after purchasing an additional 4,357 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Toro during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,219,000. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Toro in the second quarter valued at $167,000. Finally, SkyView Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Toro by 8.9% in the 2nd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,870 shares of the company’s stock valued at $923,000 after acquiring an additional 803 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Toro Trading Up 0.1 %

TTC opened at $85.50 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $90.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $89.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.77 billion, a PE ratio of 33.79 and a beta of 0.69. Toro has a 12-month low of $77.15 and a 12-month high of $102.00. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.26 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 25.94% and a net margin of 8.89%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.95 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Toro will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is 56.92%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TTC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. DA Davidson decreased their price target on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Toro in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $93.33.

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.