Toro Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:TTC)

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

Insider Transactions at Toro

In other Toro news, VP Edric C. Funk sold 615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.57, for a total value of $55,085.55. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 1,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $93,958.93. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Toro news, VP Edric C. Funk sold 615 shares of Toro stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.57, for a total value of $55,085.55. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 1,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $93,958.93. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,192 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.75, for a total value of $460,790.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 33,051 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,933,276.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.62% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Toro

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TTC. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Toro by 24.4% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 128,430 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,673,000 after purchasing an additional 25,228 shares during the last quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI acquired a new stake in Toro during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,304,000. Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in Toro by 23.3% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 265,204 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,457,000 after acquiring an additional 50,105 shares during the last quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC increased its position in Toro by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 130,375 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,834,000 after acquiring an additional 10,616 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in Toro by 15.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 42,813 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,558,000 after acquiring an additional 5,612 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Price Performance

Shares of NYSE TTC opened at $84.28 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $90.69 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $88.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.80 billion, a PE ratio of 30.76 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 0.86. Toro has a fifty-two week low of $78.35 and a fifty-two week high of $108.50.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 7th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $1 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1 billion. Toro had a return on equity of 26.66% and a net margin of 6.53%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Toro will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Investors of record on Monday, April 1st were issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.71%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 28th. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.55%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Toro from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. TheStreet raised Toro from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Toro from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 21st. Finally, DA Davidson raised their price target on shares of Toro from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.60.

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.