Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) Shares Gap Down on Insider Selling

Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Thursday following insider selling activity. The stock had previously closed at $122.05, but opened at $102.00. Teradyne shares last traded at $110.66, with a volume of 1,991,735 shares traded.

Specifically, CFO Sanjay Mehta sold 1,789 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.51, for a total transaction of $215,592.39. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 33,308 shares in the company, valued at $4,013,947.08. This represents a 5.10 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Richard John Burns sold 407 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.51, for a total transaction of $49,047.57. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 20,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,502,269.64. This trade represents a 1.92 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on TER shares. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Teradyne from $140.00 to $133.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Teradyne from $145.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Teradyne from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $145.00 to $158.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Teradyne in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Northland Securities raised Teradyne from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $117.00 to $154.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $149.31.

Teradyne Price Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average price of $125.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $125.64. The company has a market capitalization of $18.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.46.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.04. Teradyne had a net margin of 18.75% and a return on equity of 18.56%. Research analysts anticipate that Teradyne, Inc. will post 3.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Teradyne Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.42%. Teradyne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.24%.

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

Institutional Trading of Teradyne

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TER. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in Teradyne by 59.9% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,928,143 shares of the company’s stock worth $620,552,000 after acquiring an additional 1,846,079 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Teradyne by 1,767.0% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 923,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $116,233,000 after purchasing an additional 873,626 shares during the last quarter. Alkeon Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 189.6% in the 3rd quarter. Alkeon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,144,017 shares of the company’s stock worth $153,218,000 after purchasing an additional 749,003 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new stake in Teradyne during the third quarter valued at approximately $91,129,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Teradyne by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,825,897 shares of the company’s stock worth $355,837,000 after buying an additional 393,175 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.77% of the company’s stock.

Teradyne Company Profile

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.