Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $285.00.

Several analysts have issued reports on LFUS shares. StockNews.com raised shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Oppenheimer raised shares of Littelfuse from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $270.00 to $280.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 13th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 2,091 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.65, for a total transaction of $574,293.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,383,971.10. This represents a 3.39 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.02, for a total value of $353,284.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 5,522 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,358,522.44. This represents a 20.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,242 shares of company stock worth $3,318,974 over the last three months. 2.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Littelfuse

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Pathstone Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Littelfuse by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 6,522 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,730,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 6.5% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 719 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $191,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 1.4% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,436 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $911,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Rathbones Group PLC boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 0.3% in the second quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 16,624 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,249,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd grew its stake in Littelfuse by 28.5% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 239 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Littelfuse Price Performance

LFUS stock opened at $241.09 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $5.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.99, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $255.32 and a 200-day moving average of $256.31. Littelfuse has a 12-month low of $222.91 and a 12-month high of $275.58.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.09 by $0.62. The firm had revenue of $567.39 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $557.38 million. Littelfuse had a return on equity of 8.49% and a net margin of 8.88%. Littelfuse’s revenue was down 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.97 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Littelfuse will post 8.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.99%.

About Littelfuse

Littelfuse, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells electronic components, modules, and subassemblies in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. The company operates through Electronic, Transportation, and Industrial segments. The Electronics segment offers fuses and fuse accessories, positive temperature coefficient resettable fuses, electromechanical switches and interconnect solutions, polymer electrostatic discharge suppressors, varistors, reed switch based magnetic sensing products, and gas discharge tubes; and discrete transient voltage suppressor (TVS) diodes, TVS diode arrays, protection and switching thyristors, metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors and diodes, and insulated gate bipolar transistors.