Morgan Stanley Downgrades Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) to Underweight

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER - Get Free Report) was downgraded by analysts at Morgan Stanley from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating in a research report issued on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $117.00 price objective on the stock, down from their prior price objective of $121.00. Morgan Stanley's target price points to a potential downside of 11.56% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on TER. Craig Hallum reduced their target price on shares of Teradyne from $124.00 to $111.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Teradyne from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Teradyne from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $145.00 to $158.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Teradyne from $140.00 to $125.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Northland Securities raised shares of Teradyne from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $117.00 to $154.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $147.77.

Teradyne Trading Down 4.4 %

Teradyne stock traded down $6.10 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $132.30. The company had a trading volume of 4,080,555 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,325,233. The stock has a market cap of $21.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.46. Teradyne has a 1-year low of $92.29 and a 1-year high of $163.21. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $121.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $126.85.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.12. Teradyne had a return on equity of 18.56% and a net margin of 18.75%. The business had revenue of $737.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $716.40 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.80 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Teradyne will post 3.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Teradyne declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Monday, November 11th that permits the company to buyback $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 0.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Teradyne news, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 3,080 shares of Teradyne stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total transaction of $400,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 74,660 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,705,800. This trade represents a 3.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Teradyne

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 170,068 shares of the company's stock valued at $21,415,000 after purchasing an additional 11,951 shares in the last quarter. Zweig DiMenna Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Teradyne by 28.8% in the 4th quarter. Zweig DiMenna Associates LLC now owns 190,158 shares of the company's stock valued at $23,945,000 after buying an additional 42,500 shares during the period. Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC bought a new stake in shares of Teradyne during the fourth quarter worth $302,000. Inspire Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Teradyne by 26.6% during the fourth quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 21,496 shares of the company's stock worth $2,707,000 after acquiring an additional 4,518 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of Teradyne by 988.2% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 123,839 shares of the company's stock valued at $15,594,000 after acquiring an additional 112,459 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.77% of the company's stock.

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.