Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 328,400 shares, a growth of 13.9% from the December 15th total of 288,300 shares. Currently, 1.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 105,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.1 days.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Jeffrey G. Gorski sold 700 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction that occurred 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 approximately $773,207.10. This trade represents a 18.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Littelfuse

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp raised 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 in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 2.0% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 511,623 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $135,708,000 after buying an additional 10,119 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 2.4% during the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 444,654 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $113,649,000 after purchasing an additional 10,406 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Littelfuse by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 431,956 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $114,607,000 after buying an additional 1,525 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Littelfuse by 13.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 419,586 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $107,244,000 after purchasing an additional 49,588 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

Shares of Littelfuse stock opened at $233.17 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $241.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $251.88. Littelfuse has a 52 week low of $222.91 and a 52 week high of $275.58. 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 capitalization of $5.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.26.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.62. The company 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.97 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Littelfuse will post 8.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. Littelfuse’s payout ratio is currently 35.99%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on LFUS shares. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer raised Littelfuse from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Littelfuse has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.00.

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.