Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Teradyne Put Options (NASDAQ:TER)

Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER - Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Investors purchased 8,233 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 91% compared to the average volume of 4,304 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Teradyne

In other Teradyne news, insider Richard John Burns sold 445 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.49, for a total value of $49,613.05. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 25,191 shares in the company, valued at $2,808,544.59. This trade represents a 1.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale 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 Teradyne stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.49, for a total transaction of $154,302.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 36,576 shares in the company, valued at $4,077,858.24. This represents a 3.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,045 shares of company stock valued at $227,997. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Teradyne

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TER. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of Teradyne by 59.9% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,928,143 shares of the company's stock valued at $620,552,000 after purchasing an additional 1,846,079 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Teradyne in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $12,118,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 20,762 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in shares of Teradyne by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 30,269 shares of the company's stock worth $3,811,000 after acquiring an additional 4,212 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its stake in shares of Teradyne by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 408,177 shares of the company's stock valued at $51,398,000 after acquiring an additional 13,020 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.77% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on TER. Susquehanna decreased their price target on Teradyne from $155.00 to $133.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Teradyne from $130.00 to $100.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $125.00 to $110.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Bank of America reduced their target price on Teradyne from $100.00 to $85.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their price target on Teradyne from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $117.56.

Teradyne Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ TER traded up $2.10 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $75.88. The stock had a trading volume of 2,526,831 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,572,477. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $84.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $107.01. The company has a market capitalization of $12.20 billion, a PE ratio of 22.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.65. Teradyne has a 1 year low of $65.77 and a 1 year high of $163.21.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $685.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $680.54 million. Teradyne had a net margin of 19.23% and a return on equity of 19.08%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.51 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Teradyne will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Teradyne declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, April 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 8.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is 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.