Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) Rating Increased to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley

Key Points

• Morgan Stanley upgraded Teradyne's stock from "underweight" to "equal weight" with a price target of $100.00, indicating a potential downside of 7.11% from its previous close.
• Teradyne reported earnings of $0.57 per share for the last quarter, beating expectations, but saw a 10.7% decline in revenue compared to the previous year, totaling $651.80 million.
• The company approved a $1.00 billion stock repurchase plan, signaling confidence from leadership that the stock may be undervalued.

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER - Free Report) from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research note released on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have $100.00 target price on the stock, up from their previous target price of $74.00.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. KeyCorp reiterated a "sector weight" rating on shares of Teradyne in a report on Thursday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $102.00 price objective (up from $88.00) on shares of Teradyne in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $105.00 price objective on Teradyne and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Teradyne in a report on Thursday, July 10th. They issued a "sell" rating and a $80.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Teradyne from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $114.44.

Teradyne Stock Performance

Shares of Teradyne stock traded down $3.27 on Thursday, hitting $104.16. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,812,201 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,507,611. Teradyne has a 1 year low of $65.77 and a 1 year high of $144.16. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $89.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $93.09. The company has a market capitalization of $16.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.72.

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

Teradyne declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Monday, April 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 8.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Teradyne Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 22nd were issued a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 22nd. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. Teradyne's dividend payout ratio is currently 16.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 554 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.73, for a total value of $58,574.42. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 97,547 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,313,644.31. This represents a 0.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.16% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its holdings in Teradyne by 29.8% in the first quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 5,094 shares of the company's stock valued at $421,000 after acquiring an additional 1,170 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its holdings in Teradyne by 56.0% in the first quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 3,045 shares of the company's stock valued at $252,000 after acquiring an additional 1,093 shares during the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in Teradyne by 6.4% in the first quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 4,328 shares of the company's stock valued at $357,000 after acquiring an additional 261 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its position in Teradyne by 5.5% in the first quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 68,612 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,667,000 after purchasing an additional 3,589 shares during the period. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Teradyne by 306.9% in the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 37,661 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,111,000 after purchasing an additional 28,406 shares during the period. 99.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.