Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) Short Interest Update

Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) saw a significant growth in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,610,000 shares, a growth of 24.7% from the November 30th total of 4,500,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,300,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days. Approximately 3.5% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Richard John Burns sold 789 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.80, for a total transaction of $104,779.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 21,864 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,903,539.20. This trade represents a 3.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 3,080 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.80, for a total transaction of $409,024.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 80,736 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,721,740.80. The trade was a 3.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,494 shares of company stock worth $596,803 over the last 90 days. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Teradyne

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of TER. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 5.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,880,148 shares of the company’s stock valued at $921,458,000 after acquiring an additional 350,002 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Teradyne by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 4,603,123 shares of the company’s stock valued at $682,597,000 after purchasing an additional 57,989 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Teradyne by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,011,131 shares of the company’s stock valued at $535,484,000 after purchasing an additional 209,868 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Teradyne by 6.3% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,082,064 shares of the company’s stock worth $383,501,000 after buying an additional 183,721 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 18.2% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,432,722 shares of the company’s stock valued at $325,814,000 after buying an additional 374,522 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.77% of the company’s stock.

Teradyne Price Performance

NASDAQ:TER traded down $2.30 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $128.54. 1,640,227 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,096,839. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $114.95 and a 200-day moving average price of $128.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.81, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.51. Teradyne has a 12-month low of $92.29 and a 12-month high of $163.21.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $737.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.40 million. Teradyne had a return on equity of 18.56% and a net margin of 18.75%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.80 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Teradyne will post 3.17 EPS for the current year.

Teradyne Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 25th were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 25th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.37%. Teradyne’s payout ratio is 15.24%.

Teradyne declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Monday, November 11th that allows the company to repurchase $100.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 0.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TER has been the subject of several research reports. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Teradyne from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Craig Hallum reduced their target price on shares of Teradyne from $124.00 to $111.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Teradyne from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, October 27th. Northland Securities cut their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $126.00 to $117.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Teradyne from $140.00 to $125.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Teradyne currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $147.25.

About Teradyne

Teradyne, Inc designs, develops, manufactures, and sells automated test systems and robotics products worldwide. It operates through four segments; Semiconductor Test, System Test, Robotics, and Wireless Test. The Semiconductor Test segment offers products and services for wafer level and device package testing of semiconductor devices in automotive, industrial, communications, consumer, smartphones, cloud, computer and electronic game, and other applications.