Toro Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:TTC)

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Toro

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TTC. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Toro by 37.4% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 456,861 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,237,000 after purchasing an additional 124,373 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Toro by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 247,609 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,867,000 after acquiring an additional 1,442 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its position in shares of Toro by 11.0% in the 3rd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 125,215 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,541,000 after acquiring an additional 12,380 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. boosted its stake in Toro by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 59,819 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,352,000 after acquiring an additional 1,496 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its stake in Toro by 16.6% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 52,879 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,029,000 after acquiring an additional 7,511 shares during the last quarter. 87.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Toro Price Performance

Toro stock opened at $87.91 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $74.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $75.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The stock has a market cap of $8.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.73 and a beta of 0.82. Toro has a 12-month low of $62.34 and a 12-month high of $88.31.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, December 17th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.05. Toro had a net margin of 7.01% and a return on equity of 28.90%. The company had revenue of $1.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.95 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Toro has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.350-4.50 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Toro will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 22nd. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. This is a boost from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.21%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on TTC shares. Robert W. Baird set a $84.00 price target on Toro in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Toro in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Zacks Research cut Toro from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Toro presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $92.20.

Toro Company Profile

The Toro Company (NYSE: TTC) specializes in the design, manufacture and marketing of a broad range of outdoor environment equipment for residential, commercial and professional markets. Its product portfolio includes lawn mowers, utility vehicles, snow throwers, irrigation systems and landscape maintenance equipment. Toro’s offerings span walk-behind and ride-on mowers, zero-turn radius mowers, snow blowers, sprinklers, drip irrigation products, spreaders and specialty turf maintenance machines tailored to golf courses, sports fields and municipal parks.

Founded in 1914 and headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota, Toro has built a century-long legacy of innovation in the grounds-care industry.