Lazard Asset Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER)

Lazard Asset Management LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER - Free Report) by 2.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 905,131 shares of the company's stock after selling 27,100 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC owned 0.56% of Teradyne worth $113,973,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Teradyne in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $270,989,000. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 59.9% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,928,143 shares of the company's stock worth $620,552,000 after purchasing an additional 1,846,079 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Teradyne in the 4th quarter valued at $160,087,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in Teradyne by 28.3% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,828,689 shares of the company's stock valued at $608,025,000 after purchasing an additional 1,065,474 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in Teradyne by 142.6% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,522,537 shares of the company's stock valued at $191,718,000 after purchasing an additional 894,849 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.77% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on TER. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Teradyne from $100.00 to $85.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. KeyCorp reissued a "sector weight" rating on shares of Teradyne in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Teradyne from $81.00 to $69.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Teradyne from $120.00 to $92.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Teradyne presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $117.56.

Teradyne Stock Down 1.5%

NASDAQ TER traded down $1.28 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $82.99. 2,757,157 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,596,729. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.70. Teradyne, Inc. has a 1 year low of $65.77 and a 1 year high of $163.21. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $79.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $104.75.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The company reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $680.54 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.51 earnings per share. Teradyne's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Teradyne, Inc. will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Teradyne Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 22nd will be paid a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 22nd. Teradyne's dividend payout ratio is currently 13.56%.

Teradyne declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, April 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy up to 8.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company's leadership 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.