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

Shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $280.00.

Several brokerages have issued reports on LFUS. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Oppenheimer raised 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.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

NASDAQ LFUS opened at $243.16 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $239.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $250.60. The stock has a market cap of $6.04 billion, a PE ratio of 31.25, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a current ratio of 3.55. Littelfuse has a fifty-two week low of $222.73 and a fifty-two week high of $275.58.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $2.04 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04. Littelfuse had a return on equity of 8.49% and a net margin of 8.88%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.02 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Littelfuse will post 8.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.15%. Littelfuse’s payout ratio is 35.99%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Jeffrey G. Gorski sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.02, for a total value of $174,314.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,105 shares in the company, valued at $773,207.10. This trade represents a 18.40 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LFUS. Verition Fund Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Littelfuse during the third quarter valued at approximately $14,480,000. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in Littelfuse by 38.4% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 181,141 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $48,048,000 after purchasing an additional 50,304 shares during the period. Harvey Partners LLC increased its stake in Littelfuse by 39.5% during the 3rd quarter. Harvey Partners LLC now owns 132,500 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $35,146,000 after purchasing an additional 37,500 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Littelfuse by 26.2% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 129,836 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $30,473,000 after buying an additional 26,975 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 3.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 747,082 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $198,164,000 after buying an additional 24,571 shares in the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.