Investors Buy Large Volume of Put Options on Toro (NYSE:TTC)

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TTC has been the topic of several research reports. Northland Capmk raised Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Northland Securities raised Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com lowered Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Finally, DA Davidson cut their price target on Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Three 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 MarketBeat.com, Toro has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.75.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Toro

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Toro by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 15,298 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,225,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. lifted its position in shares of Toro by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. now owns 11,473 shares of the company’s stock valued at $923,000 after buying an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Toro by 30.2% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 547 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Northwest Financial Advisors lifted its position in shares of Toro by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Northwest Financial Advisors now owns 6,945 shares of the company’s stock valued at $556,000 after buying an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Savant Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Toro by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 3,293 shares of the company’s stock valued at $264,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Toro Trading Up 1.3%

NYSE TTC opened at $76.38 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $70.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $78.26. The company has a market capitalization of $7.62 billion, a PE ratio of 19.05 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. Toro has a 12 month low of $62.34 and a 12 month high of $100.93.

Toro Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 14th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.99%. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.87%.

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.