Teradyne Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:TER)

Key Points

• Teradyne experienced a **156% increase** in call options trading, with **11,186 contracts** being purchased on Wednesday, indicating significant investor interest.
• The stock price surged **19.0%** during midday trading, reaching **$107.79**, contrasting with an average trading volume that exceeded **8.5 million shares**.
• Teradyne's board has authorized a **$1 billion stock buyback**, which could suggest that they believe the company's stock is **undervalued**.

Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Traders bought 11,186 call options on the company. Thisrepresentsanincreaseof156% compared to the average daily volume of 4,375 call options.

Insider Activity at Teradyne

In other Teradyne news, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 554 shares of Teradyne stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.73, for a total transaction of $58,574.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 97,547 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,313,644.31. The trade was a 0.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.16% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Teradyne

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Teradyne by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,922,231 shares of the company's stock worth $1,728,176,000 after acquiring an additional 516,332 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 1,065,474 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Teradyne by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,105,505 shares of the company's stock valued at $515,665,000 after buying an additional 94,374 shares during the period. Aspex Management HK Ltd lifted its stake in Teradyne by 35.5% during the fourth quarter. Aspex Management HK Ltd now owns 3,234,842 shares of the company's stock worth $407,331,000 after purchasing an additional 847,409 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in Teradyne by 26.4% during the second quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,118,297 shares of the company's stock worth $286,634,000 after buying an additional 652,175 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.77% of the company's stock.

Teradyne Stock Down 3.8%

NASDAQ:TER traded down $4.11 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $103.32. The company had a trading volume of 1,252,138 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,456,930. The firm has a market cap of $16.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.67, a P/E/G ratio of 4.74 and a beta of 1.70. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $89.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $93.29. Teradyne has a twelve month low of $65.77 and a twelve month high of $144.16.

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

Teradyne declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback 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 generally an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Teradyne Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $130.00 price target (up previously from $120.00) on shares of Teradyne in a research note on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Teradyne from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $102.00 target price (up from $88.00) on shares of Teradyne in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Teradyne from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $74.00 to $100.00 in a report on Thursday. Finally, KeyCorp reissued a "sector weight" rating on shares of Teradyne in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Teradyne has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $114.44.

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.