Toro Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:TTC)

The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders purchased 1,176 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 1,709% compared to the typical daily volume of 65 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Northland Securities upgraded 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. DA Davidson dropped their target price on shares of Toro from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Toro from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of Toro from $88.00 to $84.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Northland Capmk upgraded shares of Toro from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $89.75.

Toro Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE TTC traded down $0.16 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $75.85. 1,203,521 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 954,507. Toro has a 1 year low of $62.34 and a 1 year high of $100.93. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $70.96 and a 200 day moving average of $77.69. The stock has a market cap of $7.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.92 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

Toro Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 17th. Toro's dividend payout ratio is currently 38.87%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Toro by 1.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,495,037 shares of the company's stock valued at $763,514,000 after acquiring an additional 169,865 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Toro by 16.4% during the first quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 8,187,609 shares of the company's stock worth $595,649,000 after purchasing an additional 1,156,314 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Toro by 1,184.6% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,963,253 shares of the company's stock worth $142,827,000 after purchasing an additional 1,810,429 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Toro by 39.5% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,534,760 shares of the company's stock valued at $111,654,000 after purchasing an additional 434,257 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Toro by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,187,550 shares of the company's stock worth $95,123,000 after purchasing an additional 60,068 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.95% of the company's stock.

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.