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

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on TER. TD Cowen cut their target price 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. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Teradyne from $112.00 to $81.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 14th. Northland Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $154.00 to $140.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Teradyne from $100.00 to $85.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $121.44.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Teradyne news, CFO Sanjay Mehta sold 1,789 shares of the company’s 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 owns 33,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,013,947.08. This represents a 5.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 3,080 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was 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 represents a 3.96 % decrease in their position. 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 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Teradyne

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Teradyne during the fourth quarter worth $270,989,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,846,079 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Teradyne in the fourth quarter valued at about $160,087,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in Teradyne by 28.3% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,828,689 shares of the company’s stock valued at $608,025,000 after purchasing an additional 1,065,474 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in Teradyne by 142.6% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,522,537 shares of the company’s stock valued at $191,718,000 after purchasing an additional 894,849 shares during the last quarter. 99.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Teradyne Stock Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ:TER opened at $88.51 on Thursday. Teradyne has a 52 week low of $82.98 and a 52 week high of $163.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a fifty day moving average of $114.63 and a 200 day moving average of $119.33.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last announced 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 net margin of 19.23% and a return on equity of 19.08%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Teradyne will post 3.88 EPS for the current year.

Teradyne Announces Dividend

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

Teradyne Company 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.