Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) Stock Price Up 5.4% Following Dividend Announcement

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) shares traded up 5.4% on Wednesday after the company announced a dividend. The stock traded as high as $236.68 and last traded at $236.04. 54,939 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 55% from the average session volume of 123,196 shares. The stock had previously closed at $224.00.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Littelfuse’s payout ratio is currently 35.99%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on LFUS. Oppenheimer upgraded Littelfuse from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.00.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market cap of $5.84 billion, a PE ratio of 30.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.26. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $239.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $250.60.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $2.04 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04. Littelfuse had a net margin of 8.88% and a return on equity of 8.49%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.02 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 8.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Jeffrey G. Gorski sold 700 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.02, for a total transaction of $174,314.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,105 shares in the company, valued at $773,207.10. The trade was a 18.40 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Littelfuse

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp grew its position in Littelfuse by 3.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 747,082 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $198,164,000 after acquiring an additional 24,571 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Littelfuse by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 511,623 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $135,708,000 after purchasing an additional 10,119 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Littelfuse by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 431,956 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $114,607,000 after purchasing an additional 1,525 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Littelfuse by 2.8% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 303,947 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $80,622,000 after buying an additional 8,195 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Trust Walden Corp boosted its stake in Littelfuse by 0.6% during the third quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 297,260 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $78,848,000 after buying an additional 1,819 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

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.