Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) Shares Gap Down – Time to Sell?

Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $341.62, but opened at $332.86. Teradyne shares last traded at $327.1540, with a volume of 171,237 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TER has been the topic of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $420.00 price objective on shares of Teradyne in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Teradyne in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $420.00 price target on shares of Teradyne in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Teradyne from $387.00 to $397.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their target price on Teradyne from $415.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $396.80.

Teradyne Stock Down 0.8%

The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $374.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $357.88. The company has a market cap of $52.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.42, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.78.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $2.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.38. Teradyne had a net margin of 25.77% and a return on equity of 39.93%. The company had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.57 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 103.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Teradyne, Inc. will post 9.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Teradyne Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be paid a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Teradyne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.13%.

Insider Transactions at Teradyne

In other news, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $425.00, for a total transaction of $1,700,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 112,495 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,810,375. This represents a 3.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Teradyne

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of Teradyne by 46,425.7% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 115,598,569 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,931,212,000 after buying an additional 115,350,107 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Teradyne in the 2nd quarter valued at $9,404,408,000. Andar Capital Management HK Ltd bought a new position in shares of Teradyne in the second quarter worth approximately $37,800,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Teradyne during the 4th quarter valued at about $398,777,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 13,949.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,036,887 shares of the company’s stock valued at $280,357,000 after purchasing an additional 2,022,389 shares in the last quarter. 99.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Teradyne

Teradyne, Inc is a global supplier of automatic test equipment and related services principally used to test semiconductors, wireless products and complex electronic systems. Founded in 1960, the company is headquartered in North Reading, Massachusetts, and has a long history of developing capital equipment and software that help semiconductor manufacturers, electronics OEMs and contract manufacturers validate product performance and reliability during design and production.

The company’s product portfolio centers on automatic test equipment (ATE) and system-level test solutions that address chip- and board-level validation, burn-in and reliability screening.