Bel Fuse Inc. (NASDAQ:BELFB) Short Interest Up 19.9% in February

Bel Fuse Inc. (NASDAQ:BELFB) saw a large increase in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 390,900 shares, an increase of 19.9% from the January 31st total of 325,900 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 76,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.1 days. Approximately 3.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bel Fuse

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of Bel Fuse by 55.4% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 398,123 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $32,821,000 after purchasing an additional 141,951 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in Bel Fuse by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 351,755 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $29,009,000 after buying an additional 33,768 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Research Inc. raised its stake in Bel Fuse by 27.4% during the fourth quarter. Advisory Research Inc. now owns 313,446 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $25,850,000 after buying an additional 67,460 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Bel Fuse by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 292,020 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $24,088,000 after buying an additional 2,722 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Portolan Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Bel Fuse by 72.5% during the fourth quarter. Portolan Capital Management LLC now owns 208,470 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $17,193,000 after buying an additional 87,612 shares during the last quarter. 58.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Bel Fuse from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com cut Bel Fuse from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Oppenheimer began coverage on Bel Fuse in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $105.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $100.00.

Bel Fuse Price Performance

BELFB opened at $79.26 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $81.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $78.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 2.92 and a quick ratio of 1.66. Bel Fuse has a 1 year low of $53.74 and a 1 year high of $92.61. The firm has a market cap of $994.32 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.24, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.28.

Bel Fuse (NASDAQ:BELFB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The electronics maker reported ($0.14) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by ($1.10). The business had revenue of $149.86 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $126.41 million. Bel Fuse had a return on equity of 12.37% and a net margin of 7.66%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.29 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Bel Fuse will post 4.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Bel Fuse Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.07 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. Bel Fuse’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.56%.

Bel Fuse Company Profile

Bel Fuse Inc designs, manufactures, markets, and sells products that power, protect, and connect electronic circuits. The company’s products are used in the networking, telecommunications, computing, general industrial, high-speed data transmission, military, commercial aerospace, transportation, and e-Mobility industries.