Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Trims Stock Position in Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER)

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) by 10.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,379 shares of the company’s stock after selling 987 shares during the quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Teradyne were worth $1,055,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in TER. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in Teradyne by 59.9% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,928,143 shares of the company’s stock valued at $620,552,000 after purchasing an additional 1,846,079 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Teradyne in the 4th quarter worth about $160,087,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Teradyne by 1,767.0% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 923,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $116,233,000 after buying an additional 873,626 shares during the period. Alkeon Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Teradyne by 189.6% in the 3rd quarter. Alkeon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,144,017 shares of the company’s stock worth $153,218,000 after buying an additional 749,003 shares during the period. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new stake in shares of Teradyne in the 3rd quarter worth about $91,129,000. 99.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Susquehanna reduced their target price on shares of Teradyne from $165.00 to $155.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Northland Securities reduced their target price on shares of Teradyne from $154.00 to $140.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Teradyne from $150.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Vertical Research initiated coverage on shares of Teradyne in a research note on Friday, March 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $135.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Teradyne from $125.00 to $110.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $121.44.

Insider Transactions at Teradyne

In related news, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 3,080 shares of the 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 74,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,800. This represents a 3.96 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Richard John Burns sold 407 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.51, for a total transaction of $49,047.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 20,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,502,269.64. This represents a 1.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,479 shares of company stock worth $1,013,134 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Teradyne Stock Performance

TER opened at $88.51 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.46. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $114.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $119.33. Teradyne, Inc. has a 52-week low of $82.98 and a 52-week high of $163.21.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.04. Teradyne had a net margin of 19.23% and a return on equity of 19.08%. Research analysts forecast that Teradyne, Inc. will post 3.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Teradyne Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Teradyne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14.41%.

Teradyne 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.