Prudential Financial Inc. Sells 682,234 Shares of Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER)

Prudential Financial Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) by 87.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 98,580 shares of the company’s stock after selling 682,234 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Teradyne were worth $12,413,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in Teradyne by 1.7% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 6,403 shares of the company’s stock valued at $858,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Teradyne by 32.5% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,753 shares of the company’s stock valued at $369,000 after purchasing an additional 676 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in Teradyne by 87.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 11,371 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,523,000 after purchasing an additional 5,294 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in Teradyne by 6.0% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 102,122 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,677,000 after buying an additional 5,804 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Teradyne in the third quarter valued at $194,000. 99.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TER has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group set a $130.00 target price on shares of Teradyne and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on Teradyne from $150.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Bank of America cut their target price on Teradyne from $100.00 to $85.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Teradyne from $140.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Teradyne from $112.00 to $81.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $121.44.

Teradyne Stock Down 3.4 %

Shares of TER stock opened at $82.78 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $13.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.86, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a 50 day moving average of $107.90 and a 200-day moving average of $117.48. Teradyne, Inc. has a 12-month low of $82.47 and a 12-month high of $163.21.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Teradyne, Inc. will post 3.88 EPS for the current year.

Teradyne Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. 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.