Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 6,750,000 shares, a growth of 18.2% from the February 13th total of 5,710,000 shares. Approximately 4.3% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 2,830,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on TER shares. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Teradyne from $100.00 to $85.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Vertical Research initiated coverage on shares of Teradyne in a research note on Friday, March 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $135.00 price objective for the company. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $165.00 to $155.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $112.00 to $81.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $121.44.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Ryan Driscoll sold 437 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.00, for a total value of $44,574.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 4,312 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $439,824. This trade represents a 9.20 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 3,080 shares of Teradyne stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total transaction of $400,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 74,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,705,800. This trade represents a 3.96 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,479 shares of company stock valued at $1,013,134. Company insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Teradyne

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TER. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Teradyne by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,405,899 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,569,511,000 after buying an additional 92,428 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Teradyne by 5.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,880,148 shares of the company’s stock worth $921,458,000 after purchasing an additional 350,002 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Teradyne by 59.9% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,928,143 shares of the company’s stock worth $620,552,000 after purchasing an additional 1,846,079 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Teradyne by 28.3% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,828,689 shares of the company’s stock worth $608,025,000 after purchasing an additional 1,065,474 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Teradyne by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,105,505 shares of the company’s stock worth $515,665,000 after purchasing an additional 94,374 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.77% of the company’s stock.

Teradyne Stock Performance

NASDAQ:TER opened at $88.51 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $114.63 and its 200-day moving average is $119.33. Teradyne has a 52-week low of $82.98 and a 52-week high of $163.21. The company has a market cap of $14.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.58, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.46.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.04. Teradyne had a net margin of 19.23% and a return on equity of 19.08%. Equities analysts predict that Teradyne will post 3.88 EPS for the current year.

Teradyne Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. Teradyne’s payout ratio is currently 14.41%.

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.