Weiss Asset Management LP Takes $3.45 Million Position in Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER)

Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new stake in Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 25,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,452,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Teradyne during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Teradyne in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Teradyne in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Quarry LP lifted its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Tortoise Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 76.1% in the second quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 273 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Mercedes Johnson sold 625 shares of Teradyne stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.80, for a total value of $83,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 15,893 shares in the company, valued at $2,110,590.40. This trade represents a 3.78 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 3,080 shares of Teradyne stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total transaction of $400,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 83,816 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,896,080. This represents a 3.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 7,574 shares of company stock worth $997,203. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TER has been the topic of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Teradyne from $140.00 to $125.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com raised shares of Teradyne from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, October 27th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Teradyne from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Teradyne from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Northland Securities cut their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $126.00 to $117.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $142.62.

Teradyne Stock Performance

Shares of TER stock opened at $118.51 on Friday. Teradyne, Inc. has a one year low of $91.11 and a one year high of $163.21. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $116.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $130.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.51.

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

Teradyne announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, November 11th that authorizes the company to buyback $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 0.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Teradyne Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 25th will be paid a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 25th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Teradyne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.24%.

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.