Robo Global component Teradyne’s 4Q earnings beat Street on sales surge

Teradyne Inc (NASDAQ:TER) stock climbed Thursday after the automated testing equipment provider for industrial applications reported fourth-quarter earnings that handily beat Wall Street estimates on strong revenue.

Last year, North Reading, Massachusetts-based Teradyne acquired Danish robotics company MiR for $148 million which expands its role in flexible, easy to use, next-generation automation products.  

Teradyne stock climbed 3.66% to $33.10 in premarket trading Thursday.

READ: Robo Global says smart factories with robots, automation will flourish in 2019

For the quarter ended December 2018, Teradyne reported earnings of $0.63 per share on revenue of $519.6 million. The consensus earnings estimate was $0.50 per share on revenue of $495.4 million. Revenue grew 8.4% on a year-over-year basis.

The company said it expects first-quarter earnings of $0.39 to $0.47 per share on revenue of $460.0 million to $490.0 million. The current consensus earnings estimate is $0.46 per share on revenue of $480.0 million for the quarter ending March 31, 2019.

“We finished 2018 with strong fourth quarter sales above the high end of our guidance driven by upside demand in our semiconductor and wireless test businesses,” said Teradyne CEO Mark Jagiela. “Gross margin for the year was at a record level due mainly to continued Universal Robots manufacturing cost reductions and a favorable product mix overall. MiR sales for the year more than doubled on a pro-forma basis.”

ROBO Global, which created the ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index, the world’s first benchmark index to track companies that focus on robotics, automation and artificial intelligence, said in its worldwide outlook report for 2019 that Teradyne’s Universal Robot, was “the leader in collaborative robots,” and would grow sales by 40 to 45%.

A bell-ringing ‘bot

In October, long-limbed UR5e, made by Universal Robots and sporting a two-fingered gripper from Robotiq, rang the closing bell at the NYSE to honor the five-year anniversary of ROBO Global. It became the first cobot, or collaborative robot to ring the NYSE closing bell. A cobot can safely work alongside humans in a shared workspace.

Teradyne’s board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.09 per share, payable on 22 March 2019 to shareholders. 

Contact Uttara Choudhury at [email protected]

Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive 

Story by ProactiveInvestors