First Trust Advisors LP Sells 194,331 Shares of Teradyne, Inc. $TER

First Trust Advisors LP trimmed its position in Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) by 58.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 137,967 shares of the company’s stock after selling 194,331 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Teradyne were worth $40,902,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of TER. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new stake in Teradyne during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC acquired a new position in shares of Teradyne in the 2nd quarter valued at $35,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new position in shares of Teradyne during the 4th quarter worth about $37,000. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. bought a new position in shares of Teradyne during the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Cornerstone Planning Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Teradyne by 149.1% during the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 142 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. 99.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.03, for a total transaction of $1,692,120.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 120,470 shares in the company, valued at $50,962,424.10. This represents a 3.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Ryan Driscoll sold 680 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $377.60, for a total value of $256,768.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 7,665 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,894,304. This represents a 8.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 14,941 shares of company stock worth $5,444,112 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on TER. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Teradyne from $350.00 to $465.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Teradyne from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Evercore set a $370.00 price objective on Teradyne in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Teradyne from $415.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Teradyne from $325.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Teradyne currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $394.53.

Teradyne Stock Down 4.3%

Shares of TER stock opened at $334.77 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $52.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 61.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.74. Teradyne, Inc. has a 12-month low of $89.18 and a 12-month high of $487.91. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $382.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $334.39.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.11 by $0.45. The firm had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.20 billion. Teradyne had a net margin of 22.55% and a return on equity of 31.79%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 87.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.75 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Teradyne, Inc. will post 7.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Teradyne Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 21st were issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 21st. This is an increase from Teradyne’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Teradyne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.63%.

Teradyne Profile

Teradyne, Inc is a global supplier of automatic test equipment and related services principally used to test semiconductors, wireless products and complex electronic systems. Founded in 1960, the company is headquartered in North Reading, Massachusetts, and has a long history of developing capital equipment and software that help semiconductor manufacturers, electronics OEMs and contract manufacturers validate product performance and reliability during design and production.

The company’s product portfolio centers on automatic test equipment (ATE) and system-level test solutions that address chip- and board-level validation, burn-in and reliability screening.