Traders Buy High Volume of Put Options on Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER)

Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors purchased 60,080 put options on the company. This is an increase of 1,555% compared to the average volume of 3,631 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Teradyne

In other Teradyne news, insider Richard John Burns sold 445 shares of the company’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 owns 25,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,808,544.59. This represents a 1.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Sanjay Mehta sold 1,789 shares of Teradyne stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.51, for a total transaction of $215,592.39. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 33,308 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,013,947.08. This represents a 5.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 5,399 shares of company stock valued at $612,734. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Teradyne

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Compass Financial Services Inc bought a new position in shares of Teradyne during the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new position in Teradyne during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. AllSquare Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Teradyne by 200.0% in the 4th quarter. AllSquare Wealth Management LLC now owns 300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Teradyne by 264.0% during the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 313 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares during the period. Finally, Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Teradyne during the 4th quarter worth $45,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on TER. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their target price on Teradyne from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. KeyCorp cut their price objective on Teradyne from $150.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Teradyne from $130.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Northland Securities dropped their target price on shares of Teradyne from $154.00 to $140.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Teradyne from $145.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $121.44.

Teradyne Trading Up 4.9 %

TER stock traded up $3.35 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $72.07. 3,729,647 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,138,887. Teradyne has a 1-year low of $65.77 and a 1-year high of $163.21. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $102.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $115.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.59 billion, a PE ratio of 21.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.65.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.04. Teradyne had a return on equity of 19.08% and a net margin of 19.23%. Equities research analysts expect that Teradyne will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Teradyne Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Teradyne’s dividend payout ratio is 14.41%.

Teradyne Company Profile

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.