JPMorgan Chase & Co. Upgrades Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) to Overweight

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER - Free Report) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a report released on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $158.00 price objective on the stock, up from their prior price objective of $145.00.

TER has been the subject of a number of other reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Teradyne from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Sunday, October 27th. Craig Hallum reduced 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. Northland Securities reduced their price objective on Teradyne from $126.00 to $117.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Teradyne from $140.00 to $125.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced 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. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Teradyne presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $147.25.

Teradyne Trading Up 5.1 %

TER stock traded up $6.26 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $129.48. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,356,142 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,075,053. The company has a market cap of $21.09 billion, a PE ratio of 39.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.51. Teradyne has a 12 month low of $92.29 and a 12 month high of $163.21. The firm's 50-day moving average is $115.18 and its 200-day moving average is $129.55.

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

Teradyne Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Investors of record on Monday, November 25th will be given a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 25th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.37%. Teradyne's dividend payout ratio is currently 15.24%.

Teradyne announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, November 11th that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy up to 0.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Teradyne

In other news, Director Mercedes Johnson sold 625 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.80, for a total transaction of $83,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 15,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,110,590.40. This represents a 3.78 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 3,080 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.80, for a total transaction of $409,024.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 80,736 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,721,740.80. The trade was a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,494 shares of company stock valued at $596,803 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.36% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Teradyne

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of TER. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Teradyne by 5.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,880,148 shares of the company's stock worth $921,458,000 after buying an additional 350,002 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Teradyne by 1.3% during the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 4,603,123 shares of the company's stock worth $682,597,000 after buying an additional 57,989 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Teradyne by 5.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,011,131 shares of the company's stock worth $535,484,000 after buying an additional 209,868 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Teradyne by 6.3% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,082,064 shares of the company's stock worth $383,501,000 after buying an additional 183,721 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its stake in Teradyne by 18.2% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,432,722 shares of the company's stock worth $325,814,000 after buying an additional 374,522 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.