Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the seven brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $285.00.

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

Littelfuse Price Performance

LFUS stock opened at $253.84 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.29 billion, a PE ratio of 29.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.27. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $259.42 and its 200-day moving average price is $254.02. Littelfuse has a one year low of $212.80 and a one year high of $275.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.42 and a current ratio of 3.50.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $1.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.22. Littelfuse had a net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 8.91%. The business had revenue of $558.49 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $540.35 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.12 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Littelfuse will post 8.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd were issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.10%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. This is a positive change from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.07%.

Insider Activity at Littelfuse

In other Littelfuse news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 3,786 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.92, for a total value of $1,037,061.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,340,423.68. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 3,786 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.92, for a total value of $1,037,061.12. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,340,423.68. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,358,522.44. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 16,028 shares of company stock worth $4,356,035. Insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LFUS. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. purchased a new stake in Littelfuse in the 2nd quarter valued at about $100,662,000. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 223.8% during the first quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 313,927 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $76,080,000 after acquiring an additional 216,985 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Littelfuse in the second quarter valued at approximately $46,037,000. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC grew its stake in Littelfuse by 88.8% in the first quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 166,195 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $40,278,000 after purchasing an additional 78,153 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Littelfuse by 13.2% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 501,504 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $128,179,000 after purchasing an additional 58,529 shares during the period. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Littelfuse Company Profile

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.