Toro Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:TTC)

Toro Company (The) (NYSE:TTC) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders acquired 1,176 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 1,709% compared to the typical volume of 65 put options.

Toro Stock Up 0.6%

TTC opened at $75.20 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $77.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $74.39. Toro has a 52 week low of $62.34 and a 52 week high of $89.50. The company has a market capitalization of $7.36 billion, a PE ratio of 22.79 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.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 4th. The company reported $1.24 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.02. Toro had a net margin of 7.37% and a return on equity of 28.98%. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.16 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.18 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. Toro has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.150-4.150 EPS. Analysts forecast that Toro will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Toro Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 21st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 7th were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 7th. Toro’s dividend payout ratio is 46.06%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on TTC shares. Longbow Research upgraded shares of Toro from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 25th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Toro from $82.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Northland Securities upped their target price on shares of Toro from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. DA Davidson upped their target price on shares of Toro from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Toro in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $92.60.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in Toro by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 535,787 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,882,000 after purchasing an additional 37,405 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp raised its position in Toro by 11.2% in the 1st quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 10,915 shares of the company’s stock worth $794,000 after purchasing an additional 1,098 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its position in Toro by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 14,199 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,033,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its position in Toro by 65.4% in the 1st quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 12,674 shares of the company’s stock worth $922,000 after purchasing an additional 5,012 shares during the period. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its position in Toro by 96.9% in the 1st quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 8,260 shares of the company’s stock worth $601,000 after purchasing an additional 4,065 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.