Toro Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:TTC)

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Toro

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 27.8% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 47,912 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,989,000 after buying an additional 10,409 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Toro by 79.2% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 17,646 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,530,000 after acquiring an additional 7,798 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its position 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 purchasing an additional 3,316 shares during the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC boosted 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 buying an additional 298 shares during the period. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Toro in the third quarter worth about $592,000. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on TTC. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Toro in a research note on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, DA Davidson dropped their price objective on Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.33.

Toro Stock Down 0.8 %

TTC stock opened at $87.73 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $84.09 and a 200-day moving average of $87.86. Toro has a fifty-two week low of $77.15 and a fifty-two week high of $102.00. The company has a market capitalization of $9.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.03 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 announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to buyback 4,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd will be given a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.73%. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is 39.90%.

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.