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

Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of 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. Currently, 3.5% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Teradyne Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of TER traded down $2.30 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $128.54. 1,640,227 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,096,839. Teradyne has a 52-week low of $92.29 and a 52-week high of $163.21. The company has a market cap of $20.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.51. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $114.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $128.65.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $737.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.40 million. Teradyne had a return on equity of 18.56% and a net margin of 18.75%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.80 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Teradyne will post 3.17 EPS for the current year.

Teradyne Announces Dividend

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

Teradyne declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, November 11th that authorizes the company to buyback $100.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Teradyne

In related news, Director Mercedes Johnson sold 625 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.80, for a total transaction of $83,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 15,893 shares in the company, valued at $2,110,590.40. This represents a 3.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 3,080 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.80, for a total transaction of $409,024.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 80,736 shares in the company, valued at $10,721,740.80. This represents a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 4,494 shares of company stock worth $596,803 over the last quarter. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Teradyne

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Teradyne during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,221,000. MBB Public Markets I LLC purchased a new stake in Teradyne during the second quarter valued at $1,619,000. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its position in Teradyne by 87.1% during the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 11,371 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,523,000 after purchasing an additional 5,294 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Teradyne by 17.6% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 77,092 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,325,000 after buying an additional 11,541 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 30.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 88,879 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,878,000 after buying an additional 20,762 shares during the last quarter. 99.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TER has been the topic of a number of research reports. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Teradyne from $140.00 to $133.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Northland Securities dropped their target price on Teradyne from $126.00 to $117.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Teradyne from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $145.00 to $158.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Teradyne from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, October 27th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Teradyne presently 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.