Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) Shares Gap Down After Insider Selling

Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER)’s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Thursday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock had previously closed at $122.05, but opened at $102.00. Teradyne shares last traded at $110.66, with a volume of 1,991,735 shares traded.

Specifically, CFO Sanjay Mehta sold 1,789 shares of Teradyne stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.51, for a total value of $215,592.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 33,308 shares in the company, valued at $4,013,947.08. The trade was a 5.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Richard John Burns sold 407 shares of Teradyne 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,502,269.64. The trade was a 1.92 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on TER shares. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Teradyne from $160.00 to $155.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. KeyCorp lowered their price target on Teradyne from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Teradyne from $140.00 to $133.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Northland Securities lowered their price target on shares of Teradyne from $154.00 to $140.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, Northland Capmk raised shares of Teradyne from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $143.77.

Teradyne Price Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average of $125.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $125.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.46.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.04. Teradyne had a return on equity of 19.23% and a net margin of 19.23%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Teradyne, Inc. will post 4.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Teradyne Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Teradyne’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.41%.

Teradyne announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Monday, November 11th that permits the company to buyback $100.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Teradyne

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TER. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Teradyne during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Compass Financial Services Inc purchased a new stake in Teradyne during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Quarry LP increased its position in shares of Teradyne by 256.1% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 235 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares in the last quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Teradyne by 264.0% in the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 313 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coastline Trust Co acquired a new stake in Teradyne in the 3rd quarter valued at about $46,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.77% of the company’s stock.

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.