Capital Investment Counsel Inc Decreases Stock Position in Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER)

Capital Investment Counsel Inc trimmed its holdings in Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 32,328 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,100 shares during the period. Capital Investment Counsel Inc’s holdings in Teradyne were worth $4,071,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Teradyne during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,221,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in Teradyne by 59.9% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,928,143 shares of the company’s stock worth $620,552,000 after buying an additional 1,846,079 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC grew its stake in Teradyne by 87.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 11,371 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,523,000 after buying an additional 5,294 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Teradyne by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 77,092 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,325,000 after buying an additional 11,541 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Teradyne by 30.5% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 88,879 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,878,000 after buying an additional 20,762 shares during the last quarter. 99.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Teradyne Stock Up 2.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ TER opened at $118.55 on Friday. Teradyne, Inc. has a 12 month low of $95.80 and a 12 month high of $163.21. The company has a market cap of $19.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.45. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $125.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $122.96.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $0.95 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Teradyne, Inc. will post 3.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Teradyne Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. Teradyne’s payout ratio is presently 14.41%.

Teradyne declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, November 11th that allows the company to repurchase $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TER has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Teradyne from $160.00 to $155.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Teradyne from $140.00 to $133.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com upgraded Teradyne from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, October 27th. Craig Hallum lowered their price objective on Teradyne from $124.00 to $111.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Teradyne from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $117.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $143.77.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Richard John Burns sold 407 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.51, for a total value of $49,047.57. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 20,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,502,269.64. This trade represents a 1.92 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 3,080 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total value of $400,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 74,660 shares in the company, valued at $9,705,800. The trade was a 3.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,479 shares of company stock worth $1,013,134. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.