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

Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,010,000 shares, an increase of 25.0% from the December 15th total of 5,610,000 shares. Approximately 4.4% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 2,400,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Teradyne

In other news, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 3,080 shares of Teradyne stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total transaction of $400,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 74,660 shares in the company, valued at $9,705,800. This trade represents a 3.96 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Teradyne

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC increased its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC now owns 14,590 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,837,000 after buying an additional 925 shares during the last quarter. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Teradyne by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC now owns 8,103 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,020,000 after acquiring an additional 490 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in Teradyne by 28.4% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 701 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the period. Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Teradyne by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC now owns 23,927 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,013,000 after purchasing an additional 1,465 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Teradyne by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 2,577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $324,000 after purchasing an additional 132 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.77% of the company’s stock.

Teradyne Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TER opened at $137.57 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $22.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.46. Teradyne has a 52-week low of $92.29 and a 52-week high of $163.21. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $120.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $127.34.

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

Teradyne Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 25th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.35%. Teradyne’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.24%.

Teradyne announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, November 11th that allows the company to repurchase $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 0.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on TER shares. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Teradyne from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. StockNews.com raised Teradyne from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, October 27th. Northland Securities upgraded Teradyne from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $117.00 to $154.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Teradyne from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $145.00 to $158.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Northland Capmk upgraded shares of Teradyne from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Teradyne has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $150.33.

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.