Toro Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:TTC)

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

Toro Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE TTC opened at $66.52 on Thursday. Toro has a 12 month low of $62.34 and a 12 month high of $100.93. The company has a market capitalization of $6.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.59 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $74.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $80.23.

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.29%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. Toro’s payout ratio is currently 38.87%.

Institutional Trading of Toro

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 15,298 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,225,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the period. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. raised its position in Toro by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. now owns 11,473 shares of the company’s stock worth $923,000 after buying an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Toro by 30.2% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 547 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares during the period. Northwest Financial Advisors boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Savant Capital LLC raised its holdings in Toro by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 3,293 shares of the company’s stock worth $264,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on TTC. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Raymond James dropped their price objective 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. StockNews.com cut shares of Toro from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Northland Securities raised Toro from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. 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 given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Toro presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.