Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) Upgraded at Northland Securities

Northland Securities upgraded shares of Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a research report report published on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $154.00 price target on the stock, up from their prior price target of $117.00.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on TER. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Teradyne from $140.00 to $125.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Craig Hallum decreased their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $124.00 to $111.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Teradyne from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Teradyne from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, October 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Teradyne from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $145.00 to $158.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $150.33.

Teradyne Stock Performance

NASDAQ:TER opened at $137.15 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $22.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.46. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $117.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $127.70. Teradyne has a 52 week low of $92.29 and a 52 week high of $163.21.

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

Teradyne announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Teradyne Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Investors of record on Monday, November 25th were given a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 25th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. Teradyne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.24%.

Insider Activity

In other Teradyne news, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 3,080 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total value of $400,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 74,660 shares in the company, valued at $9,705,800. This represents a 3.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Teradyne

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in Teradyne by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,522,492 shares of the company’s stock worth $194,407,000 after acquiring an additional 63,218 shares during the last quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Teradyne in the fourth quarter worth $317,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,445 shares of the company’s stock worth $434,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 103.6% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 729 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,000 after purchasing an additional 371 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its stake in shares of Teradyne by 4.1% in the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 35,836 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,800,000 after buying an additional 1,399 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.