Teradyne Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:TER)

Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 7,410 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 130% compared to the typical daily volume of 3,228 put options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Richard John Burns sold 445 shares of Teradyne stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.49, for a total transaction of $49,613.05. Following the sale, the insider now owns 25,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,808,544.59. The trade was a 1.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 3,080 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total value of $400,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 74,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,705,800. This represents a 3.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,479 shares of company stock worth $1,013,134 over the last quarter. 0.36% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Teradyne

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH boosted its position in Teradyne by 158.3% during the 4th quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH now owns 4,463 shares of the company’s stock worth $562,000 after acquiring an additional 2,735 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in shares of Teradyne during the fourth quarter valued at about $9,921,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Teradyne during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,787,000. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. increased its stake in Teradyne by 63.2% during the 4th quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. now owns 169,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,394,000 after buying an additional 65,800 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in Teradyne by 82.2% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 28,691 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,613,000 after buying an additional 12,946 shares during the period. 99.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Northland Securities cut their target price on Teradyne from $154.00 to $140.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Teradyne from $145.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $160.00 to $155.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $160.00 target price on shares of Teradyne in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Teradyne from $158.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $143.77.

Teradyne Price Performance

NASDAQ:TER traded up $2.76 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $109.99. 900,771 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,644,728. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $122.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $122.26. Teradyne has a twelve month low of $95.80 and a twelve month high of $163.21.

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 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%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Teradyne will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Teradyne declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, November 11th that allows the company to repurchase $100.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Teradyne Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Teradyne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.