Traders Buy Large Volume of Put Options on Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER)

Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) was the target of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Investors purchased 8,233 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 91% compared to the average volume of 4,304 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on TER. KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating on shares of Teradyne in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on Teradyne from $165.00 to $155.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Teradyne from $130.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Teradyne from $81.00 to $69.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Northland Capmk raised shares of Teradyne from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $118.94.

Insider Activity at Teradyne

In other news, VP Ryan Driscoll sold 437 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.00, for a total value of $44,574.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 4,312 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $439,824. This trade represents a 9.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Sanjay Mehta sold 1,384 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.49, for a total value of $154,302.16. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 36,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,077,858.24. The trade was a 3.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 3,096 shares of company stock worth $335,199. Company insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Anchor Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Teradyne in the third quarter worth about $95,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in shares of Teradyne during the third quarter valued at approximately $81,000. Tidal Investments LLC grew its stake in Teradyne by 61.6% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 18,197 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,437,000 after purchasing an additional 6,933 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Teradyne by 30.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 88,879 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,878,000 after purchasing an additional 20,762 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its position in Teradyne by 4.1% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 35,836 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,800,000 after buying an additional 1,399 shares during the period. 99.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Teradyne Trading Down 2.5 %

TER stock opened at $74.89 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.49, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.65. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $86.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $108.15. Teradyne has a 12-month low of $65.77 and a 12-month high of $163.21.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The company reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.14. Teradyne had a return on equity of 19.08% and a net margin of 19.23%. The business had revenue of $685.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $680.54 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.51 EPS. Teradyne’s quarterly revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Teradyne will post 3.88 EPS for the current year.

Teradyne declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Monday, April 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 8.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.