Teradyne Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:TER)

Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors acquired 7,410 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 130% compared to the typical volume of 3,228 put options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Teradyne news, insider Richard John Burns sold 407 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.51, for a total value of $49,047.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 20,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,502,269.64. This represents a 1.92 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, 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 owns 74,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,705,800. This trade represents a 3.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,479 shares of company stock worth $1,013,134. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in Teradyne during the third quarter worth about $29,000. Compass Financial Services Inc acquired a new stake in Teradyne during the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new stake in Teradyne during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. AllSquare Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Teradyne by 200.0% during the fourth quarter. AllSquare Wealth Management LLC now owns 300 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Teradyne by 264.0% during the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 313 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares during the period. 99.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on Teradyne from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley cut Teradyne from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $121.00 to $117.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Teradyne from $145.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Teradyne from $158.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Northland Capmk upgraded Teradyne from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $143.77.

Teradyne Stock Performance

Shares of TER stock opened at $105.39 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $121.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.04 billion, a PE ratio of 31.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.46. Teradyne has a fifty-two week low of $95.80 and a fifty-two week high of $163.21.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Teradyne Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Teradyne’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.41%.

Teradyne declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, November 11th that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase 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.