ARK Investment Management LLC Increases Position in Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER)

ARK Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) by 25.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,923,010 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 390,397 shares during the quarter. Teradyne accounts for about 2.0% of ARK Investment Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. ARK Investment Management LLC owned approximately 1.18% of Teradyne worth $242,145,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in Teradyne in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Compass Financial Services Inc bought a new stake in Teradyne in the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Teradyne by 264.0% in the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 313 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. Coastline Trust Co bought a new stake in Teradyne in the third quarter valued at about $46,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new stake in Teradyne in the third quarter valued at about $52,000. 99.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on TER. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Teradyne from $158.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley downgraded Teradyne from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $121.00 to $117.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Northland Securities decreased their target price on Teradyne from $154.00 to $140.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. KeyCorp decreased their target price on Teradyne from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $160.00 target price on shares of Teradyne in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $143.77.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 74,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,800. This represents a 3.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Sanjay Mehta sold 614 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.00, for a total value of $62,628.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,446 shares in the company, valued at $3,105,492. This represents a 1.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,479 shares of company stock valued at $1,013,134 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Teradyne Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ TER opened at $111.35 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $124.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $122.91. The company has a market cap of $18.01 billion, a PE ratio of 33.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.45. Teradyne, Inc. has a 12-month low of $95.80 and a 12-month high of $163.21.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.04. Teradyne had a return on equity of 19.08% and a net margin of 19.23%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Teradyne, Inc. will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Teradyne Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Teradyne’s payout ratio is 14.41%.

Teradyne declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, November 11th that authorizes the company to repurchase $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.