Toro Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:TTC)

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Raymond James lowered their price objective on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.75.

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of TTC stock opened at $80.62 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $8.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.10 and a beta of 0.72. Toro has a one year low of $76.95 and a one year high of $100.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.81. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $83.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $85.46.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.95. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 27.25% and a net margin of 9.14%. Toro’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Toro will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Toro declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to buyback 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.91%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Toro

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TTC. Asset Planning Inc acquired a new position in shares of Toro during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Toro by 195.7% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 547 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in Toro by 112.1% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 333 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Toro by 54.6% during the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 807 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 285 shares during the period. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its stake in shares of Toro by 850.0% in the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares during the period. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.