Handelsbanken Fonder AB Trims Stake in Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB lowered its holdings in Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) by 24.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 72,132 shares of the company’s stock after selling 22,993 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Teradyne were worth $9,083,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in TER. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in Teradyne by 59.9% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,928,143 shares of the company’s stock valued at $620,552,000 after purchasing an additional 1,846,079 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 1,767.0% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 923,068 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,233,000 after buying an additional 873,626 shares during the period. Alkeon Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 189.6% in the 3rd quarter. Alkeon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,144,017 shares of the company’s stock valued at $153,218,000 after buying an additional 749,003 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new stake in shares of Teradyne in the 3rd quarter valued at $91,129,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,825,897 shares of the company’s stock valued at $355,837,000 after buying an additional 393,175 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Teradyne from $145.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Teradyne from $158.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley downgraded Teradyne from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $117.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. KeyCorp cut their price objective on Teradyne from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of Teradyne in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. One 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $143.77.

Insider Buying and Selling at Teradyne

In other news, CFO Sanjay Mehta sold 614 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.00, for a total transaction of $62,628.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,105,492. This represents a 1.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 3,080 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 74,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Insiders sold a total of 8,479 shares of company stock valued at $1,013,134 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Teradyne Stock Down 2.2 %

TER opened at $115.91 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $124.99 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $122.99. The company has a market cap of $18.88 billion, a PE ratio of 34.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.45. Teradyne, Inc. has a 52 week low of $95.80 and a 52 week high of $163.21.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.04. Teradyne had a return on equity of 19.08% and a net margin of 19.23%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Teradyne, Inc. will post 3.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Teradyne Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. 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 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, November 11th that allows the company to buyback $100.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.