Lazard Asset Management LLC Reduces Stake in Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER)

Lazard Asset Management LLC reduced its position in Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) by 3.7% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 500,075 shares of the company’s stock after selling 18,947 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Teradyne were worth $56,423,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of TER. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Teradyne during the fourth quarter valued at $188,873,000. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Teradyne by 26.9% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,361,091 shares of the company’s stock valued at $473,265,000 after acquiring an additional 923,612 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its position in shares of Teradyne by 23.2% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,896,349 shares of the company’s stock valued at $314,324,000 after acquiring an additional 544,482 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its position in shares of Teradyne by 1,544.3% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 473,221 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,354,000 after acquiring an additional 444,442 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ossiam lifted its position in shares of Teradyne by 13,540.0% in the first quarter. Ossiam now owns 419,977 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,386,000 after acquiring an additional 416,898 shares in the last quarter. 99.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Teradyne Stock Up 1.7 %

NASDAQ TER traded up $2.12 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $126.46. 2,617,182 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,027,493. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $146.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $121.35. Teradyne, Inc. has a 52 week low of $81.07 and a 52 week high of $163.21. The stock has a market cap of $19.74 billion, a PE ratio of 48.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.50.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The company reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.09. Teradyne had a return on equity of 18.77% and a net margin of 18.33%. The company had revenue of $729.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $701.20 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.79 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Teradyne, Inc. will post 3.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Teradyne Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. 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 dividend payout ratio is 18.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TER has been the topic of several research analyst reports. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Teradyne from $160.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Teradyne from $130.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Teradyne in a research report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Teradyne from $118.00 to $161.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Finally, Northland Securities reduced their target price on Teradyne from $136.00 to $126.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. One investment 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $141.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Mercedes Johnson sold 625 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.84, for a total transaction of $89,900.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 18,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,645,649.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, Director Mercedes Johnson sold 625 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.84, for a total value of $89,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 18,393 shares in the company, valued at $2,645,649.12. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Richard John Burns sold 5,005 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 21,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,997,799.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 10,005 shares of company stock valued at $1,304,763. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Teradyne 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.