Norges Bank Takes $270.99 Million Position in Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER)

Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,152,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $270,989,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of TER. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,846,079 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Teradyne during the fourth quarter worth $12,118,000. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its position in Teradyne by 87.1% during the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 11,371 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,523,000 after purchasing an additional 5,294 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 17.6% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 77,092 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,325,000 after purchasing an additional 11,541 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of Teradyne by 30.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 88,879 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,878,000 after purchasing an additional 20,762 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Susquehanna reduced their target price on shares of Teradyne from $165.00 to $155.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. UBS Group set a $130.00 target price on Teradyne and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Teradyne from $112.00 to $81.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Bank of America reduced their price target on Teradyne from $100.00 to $85.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on Teradyne from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $121.44.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Sanjay Mehta sold 614 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.00, for a total transaction of $62,628.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,446 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,105,492. This represents a 1.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Ryan Driscoll sold 437 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.00, for a total value of $44,574.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 4,312 shares in the company, valued at approximately $439,824. This trade represents a 9.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,479 shares of company stock valued at $1,013,134. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Teradyne Trading Down 3.4 %

Shares of Teradyne stock opened at $82.78 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $107.90 and a 200-day moving average of $117.43. The company has a market cap of $13.39 billion, a PE ratio of 24.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.46. Teradyne, Inc. has a 1-year low of $82.47 and a 1-year high of $163.21.

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

Teradyne Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Teradyne’s dividend payout ratio 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.