Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Toro (NYSE:TTC)

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

Insider Activity at Toro

In related news, Director Gary Lee Ellis sold 5,038 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.81, for a total transaction of $356,740.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 34,062 shares in the company, valued at $2,411,930.22. The trade was a 12.88% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Kurt D. Svendsen sold 6,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.99, for a total value of $425,940.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 11,646 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $826,749.54. This represents a 34.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.39% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Toro

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. True Wealth Design LLC increased its stake in Toro by 127.2% in the 4th quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 368 shares of the company's stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 206 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group grew its position in shares of Toro by 94.1% in the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 495 shares of the company's stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares during the last quarter. Financial Harvest LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Toro in the first quarter valued at approximately $42,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC grew 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 purchasing an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP grew its position in shares of Toro by 91.6% in the first quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 663 shares of the company's stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.95% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on TTC. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Toro from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Toro from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. DA Davidson set a $76.00 price objective on shares of Toro and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Northland Capmk downgraded Toro from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Northland Securities reiterated a "market perform" rating and set a $80.00 price target (down previously from $100.00) on shares of Toro in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $82.75.

Toro Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of Toro stock opened at $75.25 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $72.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $75.13. Toro has a 12-month low of $62.34 and a 12-month high of $100.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The stock has a market cap of $7.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.29 and a beta of 0.81.

Toro (NYSE:TTC - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The company reported $1.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.02. Toro had a net margin of 8.77% and a return on equity of 27.99%. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.35 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.40 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Toro will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be given a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 17th. Toro's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.97%.

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.

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