Short Interest in Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) Expands By 24.7%

Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,610,000 shares, a growth of 24.7% from the November 30th total of 4,500,000 shares. Currently, 3.5% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 2,300,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on TER shares. StockNews.com upgraded Teradyne from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, October 27th. Craig Hallum dropped their target price on Teradyne from $124.00 to $111.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Northland Securities decreased their price target on shares of Teradyne from $126.00 to $117.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $140.00 to $125.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Teradyne from $140.00 to $133.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Teradyne presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $147.25.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Teradyne

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Teradyne in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in Teradyne during the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new position in Teradyne during the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Quarry LP raised its holdings in Teradyne by 256.1% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 235 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 169 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tortoise Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Teradyne by 76.1% in the 2nd quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 273 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.77% of the company’s stock.

Teradyne Trading Down 1.4 %

TER stock opened at $126.70 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $20.63 billion, a PE ratio of 40.22, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.51. Teradyne has a 1 year low of $92.29 and a 1 year high of $163.21. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $114.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $128.50.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.12. Teradyne had a return on equity of 18.56% and a net margin of 18.75%. The firm had revenue of $737.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.40 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.80 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Teradyne will post 3.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Teradyne Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 25th were given a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 25th. Teradyne’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.24%.

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.