Toro Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:TTC)

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders acquired 1,176 put options on the company. This is an increase of 1,709% compared to the average daily volume of 65 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TTC. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Toro by 25.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,653,109 shares of the company’s stock worth $609,626,000 after acquiring an additional 1,332,248 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Toro by 37,332.5% in the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 470,901 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,034,000 after purchasing an additional 469,643 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Toro by 682.7% during the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 482,139 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,085,000 after purchasing an additional 420,539 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Toro by 11,970.3% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 393,008 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,750,000 after buying an additional 389,752 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuance Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Toro during the third quarter valued at approximately $29,146,000. 87.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Toro Price Performance

NYSE TTC traded down $0.65 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $82.05. The stock had a trading volume of 60,004 shares, compared to its average volume of 870,723. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $83.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $88.22. The company has a market cap of $8.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.70 and a beta of 0.69. Toro has a 52-week low of $77.15 and a 52-week high of $102.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.23 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.26 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 25.94% and a net margin of 8.89%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.95 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Toro will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were given a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.76%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.80%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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