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

Key Points

• Toro Company experienced a significant increase in options trading, with investors buying 1,176 put options, marking a 1,709% rise above the average daily volume.
• The company reported $1.24 earnings per share for the recent quarter, surpassing estimates, while its revenue of $1.13 billion fell short of expectations.
• Toro declared a quarterly dividend of $0.38 per share, with a projected annual dividend yield of 2.0%.

Toro Company (The) (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 1,176 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 1,709% compared to the average daily volume of 65 put options.

Toro Stock Performance

Shares of TTC opened at $74.32 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $7.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.52 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The business's 50 day moving average price is $77.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $73.84. Toro has a 52 week low of $62.34 and a 52 week high of $89.50.

Toro (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 4th. The company reported $1.24 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.16 billion. Toro had a net margin of 7.37% and a return on equity of 28.98%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.18 earnings per share. Toro has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.150-4.150 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Toro will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 21st. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 7th will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 7th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Toro's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.06%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Toro from $82.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Toro in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Toro from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Longbow Research upgraded shares of Toro from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $100.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, August 25th. Finally, Northland Securities boosted their price target on Toro from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $92.60.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Toro

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 in 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 valued at $595,649,000 after acquiring 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 valued at $142,827,000 after acquiring an additional 1,810,429 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Toro by 39.5% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,534,760 shares of the company's stock worth $111,654,000 after purchasing an additional 434,257 shares during the period. Finally, King Luther Capital Management Corp grew its position in Toro by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 1,077,753 shares of the company's stock worth $78,407,000 after purchasing an additional 33,920 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.95% of the company's stock.

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.

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