Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) Short Interest Up 25.0% in December

Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in 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. Based on an average trading volume of 2,400,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.9 days. Currently, 4.4% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on TER. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Teradyne from $140.00 to $125.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Teradyne from $140.00 to $133.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Teradyne from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, October 27th. Craig Hallum dropped their price objective on Teradyne from $124.00 to $111.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Teradyne from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $145.00 to $158.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $150.33.

Teradyne Stock Performance

TER stock traded up $0.83 during trading on Friday, hitting $138.40. The stock had a trading volume of 2,253,431 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,285,888. The stock has a market cap of $22.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.46. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $121.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $127.28. Teradyne has a 1-year low of $92.29 and a 1-year high of $163.21.

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

Teradyne Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 25th were issued 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 payout ratio is 15.24%.

Teradyne announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Monday, November 11th that permits the company to buyback $100.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 3,080 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total value of $400,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 74,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,705,800. This represents a 3.96 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Teradyne

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Teradyne during the 3rd quarter valued at $2,221,000. MBB Public Markets I LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Teradyne in the second quarter worth about $1,619,000. Cerity Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 87.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 11,371 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,523,000 after buying an additional 5,294 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 11,541 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Teradyne by 30.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 88,879 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,878,000 after purchasing an additional 20,762 shares during the period. 99.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.