Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) Upgraded to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Saturday.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price objective (up previously from $120.00) on shares of Teradyne in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Teradyne from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $85.00 target price on shares of Teradyne in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $102.00 target price (up previously from $88.00) on shares of Teradyne in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald set a $105.00 target price on shares of Teradyne and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Teradyne presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $114.44.

Teradyne Price Performance

TER opened at $109.42 on Friday. Teradyne has a fifty-two week low of $65.77 and a fifty-two week high of $144.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.86, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.72. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $95.21 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $91.45.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $651.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $649.02 million. Teradyne had a net margin of 16.59% and a return on equity of 18.16%. Teradyne’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.86 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Teradyne will post 3.88 EPS for the current year.

Teradyne announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Monday, April 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy up to 8.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 554 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.00, for a total transaction of $58,724.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 96,993 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,281,258. This represents a 0.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Teradyne

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Teradyne in the fourth quarter worth about $7,587,000. Advisory Services Network LLC boosted its holdings in Teradyne by 6.3% in the fourth quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 2,384 shares of the company’s stock worth $300,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in Teradyne by 557.5% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 276,238 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,784,000 after acquiring an additional 234,222 shares in the last quarter. Commerce Bank boosted its holdings in Teradyne by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 32,683 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,115,000 after acquiring an additional 1,914 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Forum Financial Management LP acquired a new stake in Teradyne in the fourth quarter worth about $487,000. Institutional investors own 99.77% of the company’s stock.

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.