Exploring Teradata Corporation (TDC) Investor Profile: Who’s Buying and Why?

You're looking at Teradata Corporation (TDC) and wondering why the stock is a magnet for the world's biggest money managers, right? Honestly, it boils down to a classic value-play-meets-cloud-transition story, but the numbers are what really tell the tale.

Institutional ownership is massive, sitting at over 90.31% of the stock, with giants like Vanguard Group Inc. and BlackRock, Inc. holding a combined stake of more than 25% as of September 2025. Why the conviction? The data platform's pivot to cloud is finally showing up in the financials: Q3 2025 non-GAAP diluted earnings per share hit $0.72, crushing the $0.53 consensus, and the company is guiding for full-year 2025 free cash flow between $250 million and $280 million. That's a defintely strong cash signal.

The real opportunity investors are buying into is the shift to a recurring revenue model, which accounted for 88% of total revenue in Q3 2025, plus the promise of their VantageCloud platform being perfectly suited for the next wave of AI workloads. Are these institutional buyers seeing a deep value play in a legacy tech name, or is this a bet on a true cloud-analytics comeback? That's what we're exploring.

Who Invests in Teradata Corporation (TDC) and Why?

You're looking at Teradata Corporation (TDC) because the market reaction to its cloud transition has been volatile, and you want to know who is buying into this turnaround story and what their game plan is. The direct takeaway is that Teradata Corporation is overwhelmingly an institutional play, with nearly 90.31% of the company's stock held by large funds. These big players are focused less on current top-line revenue decline and more on the accelerating public cloud growth and impressive free cash flow generation.

Key Investor Types: The Institutional Dominance

The ownership structure of Teradata Corporation is highly concentrated, a clear signal that the stock's price action is driven by large, professional money managers rather than individual retail investors. Institutional investors, which include mutual funds, pension funds, and endowments, own around 90.31% of the shares outstanding. The remaining ownership is split between retail investors (the public) and company insiders, with insiders holding a small fraction, roughly 2.82%.

This high institutional ownership means you need to pay close attention to 13F filings (quarterly reports of institutional holdings), as a small shift in sentiment from one of the top holders can move the stock significantly. The top three institutional holders as of the most recent filings (September 2025/June 2025) include passive giants like The Vanguard Group, Inc. and BlackRock, Inc., alongside the more active hedge fund, Lynrock Lake LP.

• Vanguard Group, Inc.: Holds approximately 12 million shares.
• BlackRock, Inc.: Holds approximately 12 million shares.
• Lynrock Lake LP: A significant active investor.

When the index funds (passive investors) like Vanguard and BlackRock hold such large stakes, it means a significant portion of the stock is held simply because Teradata Corporation is included in major indices, but the hedge funds and active managers are the ones placing the big bets on the turnaround.

Investment Motivations: Cloud Growth and Cash Flow

Investors are attracted to Teradata Corporation for two primary reasons that cut through the noise of its overall revenue decline: the successful, albeit slow, transition to a cloud-first model and its strong cash generation. The company doesn't pay a defintely dividend, so the focus is entirely on capital appreciation driven by growth and profitability.

The key metric for growth investors is Public Cloud Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), which grew by a solid 11% year-over-year in Q3 2025, reaching $633 million. This growth signals that the company's strategic shift to cloud analytics and AI solutions is working, even if it's being masked by the shrinking legacy business. For the full fiscal year 2025, the company projects Public Cloud ARR growth to be between 14% and 18%.

Value-oriented investors, however, are drawn to the company's operational efficiency and cash flow. Here's the quick math: Teradata Corporation reported a Q3 2025 Non-GAAP EPS of $0.72, beating analyst expectations. More importantly, the full-year 2025 Free Cash Flow (FCF) is projected to land between $260 million and $280 million. This is a massive amount of cash for a company with a market capitalization around $2.43 billion, giving management the flexibility for share buybacks or strategic investments in AI, which you can read more about in their Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Teradata Corporation (TDC).

Investment Strategies: The Turnaround Play

The dominant strategy among institutional investors for Teradata Corporation is the 'Turnaround Value' or 'GARP' (Growth at a Reasonable Price) approach. They are betting on the successful completion of the cloud transition, where the high-growth Public Cloud ARR eventually overtakes the decline in the legacy on-premises business.

This thesis is supported by the company's improved profitability, with a Non-GAAP operating margin of 23.6% in Q3 2025. Active funds like hedge funds often engage in this strategy, buying shares when the market is pessimistic (due to overall revenue decline) and holding for the payoff when the cloud-driven growth accelerates. Short-term traders also circle the stock, capitalizing on the volatility around earnings reports, such as the Q3 2025 report where the stock initially fell 4.08% on revenue concerns before later surging on the strong EPS and cash flow numbers.

What this estimate hides is the risk: if the cloud growth rate stalls below the projected 14% to 18%, the turnaround narrative falls apart. Still, the current financial performance shows a company effectively managing costs and generating significant cash while executing a difficult business model shift.

Your next concrete step is to monitor the Q4 2025 earnings report for any revision to the Public Cloud ARR growth guidance, as this is the primary driver of the long-term investment thesis.

Institutional Ownership and Major Shareholders of Teradata Corporation (TDC)

The investor profile for Teradata Corporation (TDC) is defintely dominated by institutional money, which means the stock's direction is largely dictated by large fund managers, not individual retail traders. As of the most recent 2025 filings, institutional investors hold a massive 90.31% of the company's stock.

This level of concentration is high, and it tells you two things right away: the company is a fixture in major index funds, and its corporate strategy is under intense scrutiny from a small group of powerful shareholders. Your investment decisions need to account for the collective actions of these giants, as their movements create significant price swings.

Top Institutional Investors: Who Holds the Keys?

When you look at the shareholder list, you see the usual suspects-the passive investment titans whose mandates require them to own a piece of almost every publicly traded company. The top two investors alone account for over a quarter of the institutional holdings.

Here's the quick math on the largest holders, based on September 29, 2025, filings:

• The Vanguard Group, Inc.: Holds approximately 12.34 million shares, representing 13.24% of ownership, valued at about $322.47 million.
• BlackRock, Inc.: Holds roughly 12.24 million shares, representing 13.13% of ownership, valued at nearly $319.77 million.
• Lynrock Lake LP: A significant active investor, holding 9.42 million shares, or 10.10% of the company, as of June 2025.

These firms aren't just names on a list; they are the ultimate arbiters of Teradata Corporation's long-term strategic direction, particularly its cloud transition. You can see the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Teradata Corporation (TDC), but it's the institutional holders who pressure management to deliver on those goals.

Recent Ownership Changes: Mixed Signals on the Cloud Transition

Institutional ownership has been a mixed bag recently, signaling a divergence in investor opinion about the pace and success of the company's pivot to cloud-based data warehousing. Total institutional shares decreased by 3.51% in the three months leading up to mid-November 2025, but this masks some aggressive buying.

For example, while some of the largest holders like Vanguard and BlackRock had modest decreases in their reported share count in the second quarter of 2025 (Vanguard down 10%, BlackRock down 6%), active managers were piling in.

Here is a snapshot of the recent activity by active investment managers in Q2 2025:

This is a classic 'passive selling, active buying' scenario. The index funds (Vanguard, BlackRock) may sell due to rebalancing or a slight dip in the stock's weighting, but the active, value-focused managers (like AQR and LSV) see the stock as an opportunity. They are betting that the company's cloud Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) growth of 11% in Q3 2025, despite a 5% total revenue decline, means the transition is on track, and the stock is undervalued.

Impact of Institutional Investors on Strategy and Price

With over 90% of the stock held by institutions, these investors are not passive bystanders; they are the primary drivers of Teradata Corporation's stock price and strategy. This high ownership means the company's board and executive team are highly responsive to their concerns, especially around capital allocation and the cloud migration.

When Teradata Corporation reported its Q3 2025 earnings, the market's reaction was swift: the stock fell 4.08% in after-hours trading, despite an Earnings Per Share (EPS) beat of $0.72 versus the expected $0.53.

Why the drop? Because institutional investors prioritize the top-line growth and future guidance-the 5% year-over-year revenue decline and cautious forward guidance outweighed the EPS beat. This shows you that for a company in a business model transition, institutional investors are focused on the long-term narrative, not just the short-term earnings. They are demanding a faster, more profitable shift to the cloud, and they will sell if the pace is questioned.

Key Investors and Their Impact on Teradata Corporation (TDC)

If you're looking at Teradata Corporation (TDC), the immediate takeaway is that this is an institutional-driven stock, and one major activist investor is actively pushing for change. With over 90% of the stock held by institutional investors, their collective moves-and the very loud voice of one hedge fund-are the primary forces shaping the company's near-term strategy and stock price.

The investor base is a mix of massive passive funds and a highly engaged activist, Lynrock Lake. This dynamic creates both stability from the passive giants and volatility from the activist's demands, which is a key risk/opportunity you need to map out.

The Passive Giants: Vanguard and BlackRock

The largest shareholders are the behemoths of passive investing: The Vanguard Group, Inc. and BlackRock, Inc. As of the third quarter of 2025, Vanguard held the top spot with approximately 12.34 million shares, representing a 13.24% ownership stake. BlackRock wasn't far behind, owning about 12.24 million shares, or 13.13% of the company.

Their influence is less about direct operational input and more about governance and stability. They vote on board members and major corporate actions, but their mandate is to track an index or a broad market segment. When institutions hold over 90% of the stock, as they do here, their sheer volume acts as a floor, but it also means the stock can be sensitive to large index rebalances or shifts in institutional sentiment.

• Vanguard and BlackRock provide a massive, stable ownership base.
• Their primary influence is through proxy voting on key governance issues.
• Institutional ownership at 90.31% means retail flow is a minor factor.

The Activist Catalyst: Lynrock Lake LP

The real action comes from Lynrock Lake LP, which holds a significant stake of 9.42 million shares, or 10.10% ownership. They converted their filing to an activist Schedule 13D in March 2025, which is Wall Street's way of saying, 'We're not just holding; we're demanding change.' Their position crossed the 10% threshold partly because Teradata Corporation repurchased its own stock, reducing the total shares outstanding.

Lynrock Lake's founder, Cynthia Paul, has been direct, arguing the stock is 'significantly undervalued' relative to its strategic asset value. They are pushing for specific operational improvements, including a focus on driving higher free cash flow and adding a shareholder representative to the Board to provide strategic guidance. This is a classic activist playbook: unlock value by improving execution and exploring strategic alternatives (like a sale or divestiture). You can read more about the core strategy at Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Teradata Corporation (TDC).

Mapping Recent Investor Moves and Company Response

Recent investor activity in 2025 shows a mixed picture, reflecting the company's ongoing, sometimes painful, transition to a cloud-first model. While the overall institutional share count decreased by 3.51% in the most recent quarter, some key funds were buying. For example, LSV Asset Management raised its position by 21.4% in the second quarter of 2025, purchasing an additional 340,496 shares. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp also increased its stake by 39.7% in Q2 2025.

The company is defintely listening to the activist pressure on capital allocation. In November 2025, Teradata Corporation's board approved a substantial new $500 million stock repurchase plan, replacing the existing program. This is a huge signal, representing roughly 17% of the company's recent market capitalization of approximately $2.43 billion and follows the $30 million in stock repurchases made in Q3 2025. Here's the quick math on the 2025 financial context:

The action item for you is clear: track Lynrock Lake's next moves and the execution of that $500 million buyback. If management can deliver on its raised full-year non-GAAP diluted EPS guidance of $2.38-$2.42 and hit the free cash flow target of $250 million to $280 million, the buyback will be a powerful tailwind against the backdrop of a declining total revenue trend.

Market Impact and Investor Sentiment

You're looking at Teradata Corporation (TDC) and seeing massive institutional ownership, so you want to know if the smart money is bullish or just passively holding index funds. The direct takeaway is that while institutional investors own the vast majority of shares-around 80.46% of the company-their recent sentiment is mixed, leaning toward cautious accumulation as the cloud transition story plays out.

The core of Teradata Corporation's investor profile is this heavy institutional hand. The largest holders as of the September 2025 reporting period include Vanguard Group Inc. and BlackRock, Inc., holding roughly 13.24% and 13.13% of the company, respectively. This concentration means any shift in their passive or active strategies can defintely move the stock. The good news is that the options market, measured by the put/call ratio, has shown a bullish outlook at 0.23, suggesting traders expect stability or an upward move.

Here's the quick math on recent activity: The institutional cohort, which includes 739 funds, decreased their total shares by 3.51% in the most recent quarter, totaling 118,012K shares. More institutions-177-decreased their positions than those that increased (168), indicating some profit-taking or reallocation. Still, the high ownership percentage confirms that the long-term strategic holders aren't abandoning the ship.

You can learn more about the company's foundation here: Teradata Corporation (TDC): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money.

Recent Market Reactions to Major Investor Moves

The stock market's reaction to Teradata Corporation (TDC) has been less about individual 13F filings from institutions and more about the company's execution on its cloud-first strategy. For instance, following the Q1 2025 earnings announcement on August 5, 2025, the stock price dropped by 4.65% in after-hours trading. This happened because total revenue of $418 million missed the forecast, even though the company beat earnings per share (EPS) estimates by a substantial 15.8%, reporting $0.66 per share.

The market is prioritizing top-line growth and the cloud transition's speed over cost management. However, there are positive signals. In the month leading up to October 7, 2025, the stock saw a rally of nearly 10%, suggesting investors are starting to reward the forward-looking narrative on data-driven strategies. Furthermore, a large institutional move, such as LSV Asset Management raising its stake by 21.4% in Q2 2025 to hold 1,929,495 shares, adds a layer of confidence, even if the daily price action is driven by earnings.

Analyst Perspectives on Key Investor Influence

Wall Street analysts are clearly divided on Teradata Corporation (TDC), which is typical for a company undergoing a major business model transformation from on-premise to cloud. The consensus rating is a mixed 'Hold' or 'Buy' as of November 2025, but the average price target is approximately $29.43. This average suggests an expected upside of about 8.20% from the November 21, 2025, closing price of $27.20.

The divergence in analyst perspective mirrors the mixed institutional sentiment. The bulls, like Citizens JMP, upgraded the stock to 'Buy' with a high target of $42 in November 2025, betting on the success of the cloud pivot. The bears, such as Barclays, maintained a 'Sell' rating with a target of $24, citing ongoing revenue headwinds and market competition. What this estimate hides is the risk tied to the overall revenue decline, which is projected to be between 4% to 7% for the full year 2025.

The institutional investors, particularly the active funds, are essentially making a bet on the success of the Cloud Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) growth, which stood at a robust $606 million with a 15% growth rate. The analysts who are positive are essentially saying that the sheer volume of institutional money validates the long-term cloud story, even if the near-term financials are messy. The analysts' price targets reflect this split:

Your action is to monitor the Cloud ARR growth rate in the next earnings report; if it accelerates past the 15% mark, the bulls and the large institutional holders like BlackRock will likely be rewarded.