Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.70 Per Share

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 30th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd will be given a dividend of 0.70 per share by the technology company on Thursday, September 5th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 22nd. This is a positive change from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65.

Littelfuse has raised its dividend payment by an average of 9.2% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 14 years. Littelfuse has a dividend payout ratio of 23.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Littelfuse to earn $11.20 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.2%.

Littelfuse Price Performance

Shares of Littelfuse stock traded down $0.46 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $266.65. 10,787 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 137,397. Littelfuse has a 1 year low of $212.80 and a 1 year high of $275.58. The company has a market capitalization of $6.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.29. The business has a fifty day moving average of $258.14 and a two-hundred day moving average of $246.35. The company has a quick ratio of 2.44, a current ratio of 3.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $1.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.22. Littelfuse had a net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 8.93%. The firm had revenue of $558.49 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $540.35 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.12 earnings per share. Littelfuse’s quarterly revenue was down 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Littelfuse will post 8.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Littelfuse

In related news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.17, for a total value of $81,951.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,295,683.18. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Deepak Nayar sold 1,305 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.25, for a total value of $326,576.25. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,158,657.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.17, for a total transaction of $81,951.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,295,683.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 9,938 shares of company stock valued at $2,545,503. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LFUS has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Baird R W raised shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Littelfuse from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Littelfuse from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $270.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Friday, May 17th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $267.50.

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.