Short Interest in Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) Expands By 25.0%

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

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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 74,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,705,800. This represents a 3.96 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Teradyne during the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Teradyne during the third quarter worth about $29,000. Quarry LP boosted its stake in shares of Teradyne by 256.1% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 235 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares during the period. Coastline Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Teradyne in the third quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in Teradyne during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $52,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.77% of the company’s stock.

Teradyne Trading Up 0.6 %

TER traded up $0.83 on Friday, hitting $138.40. 2,253,431 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,285,888. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $121.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $127.28. The stock has a market cap of $22.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.46. Teradyne has a fifty-two week low of $92.29 and a fifty-two week high of $163.21.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.90 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 the consensus estimate of $716.40 million. Teradyne had a return on equity of 18.56% and a net margin of 18.75%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.80 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Teradyne will post 3.17 EPS for the current year.

Teradyne announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Monday, November 11th that authorizes the company to repurchase $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 0.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Teradyne Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on TER shares. Northland Securities upgraded shares of Teradyne from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $117.00 to $154.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $140.00 to $133.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Evercore ISI upped 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Teradyne from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $145.00 to $158.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Teradyne from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, October 27th. Three 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, Teradyne presently 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.