Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) Stock Rating Upgraded by Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has $310.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock.

LFUS has been the topic of several other reports. StockNews.com lowered Littelfuse from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Stifel Nicolaus raised Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $270.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price target on Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Littelfuse has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.00.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

Shares of LFUS stock opened at $259.07 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $259.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $253.77. Littelfuse has a one year low of $212.80 and a one year high of $275.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.42 billion, a PE ratio of 29.68, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.50 and a quick ratio of 2.42.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $1.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.22. Littelfuse had a return on equity of 8.91% and a net margin of 8.71%. The business had revenue of $558.49 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $540.35 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.12 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Littelfuse will post 8.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd were paid a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. This is an increase from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio is 32.07%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Littelfuse

In other news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.40, for a total transaction of $2,391,396.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,369,057.60. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.40, for a total transaction of $2,391,396.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,369,057.60. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.02, for a total value of $353,284.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,522 shares in the company, valued at $1,358,522.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 16,028 shares of company stock worth $4,356,035 in the last quarter. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Littelfuse

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LFUS. Rathbones Group PLC raised its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 16,624 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,249,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 21.4% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 323 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $83,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC raised its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 14.4% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 469 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $120,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 70.2% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 143 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. 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.