Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC Cuts Stock Position in Teradyne, Inc. $TER

Key Points

• Ironwood Investment Counsel reduced its Teradyne stake by 28.4% in Q1, selling 10,025 shares and leaving it with 25,312 shares worth about $7.5 million.
• Teradyne posted a strong quarter, with EPS of $2.56 and revenue of $1.28 billion, both above analyst expectations and sharply higher than a year earlier.
• The company also raised its quarterly dividend to $0.13 per share, while analysts remain broadly positive, with several firms lifting price targets and a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy.”

Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC cut its position in Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER - Free Report) by 28.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 25,312 shares of the company's stock after selling 10,025 shares during the quarter. Teradyne makes up approximately 1.1% of Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC's holdings in Teradyne were worth $7,504,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 149.1% in the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 142 shares of the company's stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Teradyne in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. raised its stake in shares of Teradyne by 192.9% during the 1st quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 164 shares of the company's stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 108 shares in the last quarter. Ascentis Independent Advisors bought a new position in shares of Teradyne during the 1st quarter worth approximately $56,000. Finally, Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new stake in Teradyne during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. 99.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Teradyne news, VP Ryan Driscoll sold 680 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $377.60, for a total transaction of $256,768.00. Following the sale, the vice president owned 7,665 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,894,304. The trade was a 8.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.03, for a total value of $1,692,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 120,470 shares in the company, valued at $50,962,424.10. This represents a 3.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 14,941 shares of company stock valued at $5,444,112. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Teradyne Stock Performance

Shares of Teradyne stock opened at $322.36 on Monday. Teradyne, Inc. has a 12-month low of $89.18 and a 12-month high of $487.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $50.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.70, a PEG ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.74. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $382.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $328.08.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.11 by $0.45. Teradyne had a net margin of 22.55% and a return on equity of 31.79%. The business had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.20 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.75 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 87.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Teradyne, Inc. will post 7.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Teradyne Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 21st were given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 21st. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. This is an increase from Teradyne's previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Teradyne's payout ratio is presently 9.63%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on TER. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Teradyne from $350.00 to $465.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. UBS Group upped their price target on Teradyne from $325.00 to $440.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Teradyne from $415.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on Teradyne from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on Teradyne from $325.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Teradyne has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $390.53.

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.

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