Toro Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:TTC)

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Toro

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Toro by 45.5% in the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,031,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $563,207,000 after acquiring an additional 2,199,920 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Toro by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,959,875 shares of the company’s stock worth $169,639,000 after acquiring an additional 29,105 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Toro by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,187,550 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,123,000 after acquiring an additional 60,068 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its position in shares of Toro by 30.3% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,121,116 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,701,000 after acquiring an additional 260,746 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Toro by 17.5% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,100,503 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,152,000 after acquiring an additional 164,069 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of TTC opened at $72.17 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $79.98 and its 200-day moving average is $82.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.00 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Toro has a 12-month low of $71.50 and a 12-month high of $100.93.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.95. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. Toro had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 27.25%. The business’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.71 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Toro will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.11%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.87%.

Toro declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Tuesday, December 10th that allows the company to repurchase 4,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on TTC. DA Davidson dropped their price target on shares of Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Northland Capmk upgraded shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Northland Securities upgraded shares of Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Raymond James dropped their price target on shares of Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.75.

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.