Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER)

Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 4,857 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 246% compared to the average daily volume of 1,403 put options.

Teradyne Stock Up 1.7 %

NASDAQ:TER traded up $2.12 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $126.46. 2,617,182 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,027,493. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $146.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $121.24. The company has a market cap of $19.74 billion, a PE ratio of 48.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.50. Teradyne has a 12-month low of $81.07 and a 12-month high of $163.21.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The company reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.09. Teradyne had a net margin of 18.33% and a return on equity of 18.77%. The business had revenue of $729.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $701.20 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.79 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Teradyne will post 3.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Teradyne Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 22nd were issued a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 21st. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.38%. Teradyne’s payout ratio is 18.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Mercedes Johnson sold 625 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.84, for a total transaction of $89,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 18,393 shares in the company, valued at $2,645,649.12. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Teradyne news, insider Richard John Burns sold 5,005 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.64, for a total value of $688,888.20. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 21,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,997,799.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Mercedes Johnson sold 625 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.84, for a total transaction of $89,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,393 shares in the company, valued at $2,645,649.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 10,005 shares of company stock valued at $1,304,763. Insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Teradyne

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TER. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Teradyne during the 4th quarter valued at $188,873,000. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in Teradyne by 26.9% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,361,091 shares of the company’s stock valued at $473,265,000 after purchasing an additional 923,612 shares during the period. Boston Partners increased its position in Teradyne by 23.2% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,896,349 shares of the company’s stock valued at $314,324,000 after purchasing an additional 544,482 shares during the period. KBC Group NV increased its position in Teradyne by 1,544.3% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 473,221 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,354,000 after purchasing an additional 444,442 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its position in Teradyne by 198.8% during the 2nd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 641,614 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,145,000 after purchasing an additional 426,900 shares during the period. 99.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on the stock. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $160.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Teradyne in a research report on Thursday. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $100.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Northland Securities reduced their target price on shares of Teradyne from $136.00 to $126.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $141.50.

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.