Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Short Interest Update

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 497,500 shares, an increase of 10.0% from the July 15th total of 452,400 shares. Currently, 2.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 119,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.2 days.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

LFUS traded down $3.99 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $256.78. 148,462 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 136,334. The company has a quick ratio of 2.44, a current ratio of 3.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Littelfuse has a 52-week low of $212.80 and a 52-week high of $275.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.29. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $256.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $247.01.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $1.97 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $558.49 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $540.35 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.12 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Littelfuse will post 8.37 EPS for the current year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd will be paid a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.09%. This is a positive change from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 22nd. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio is 32.07%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 3,786 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at $16,340,423.68. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 3,786 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at $16,340,423.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.17, for a total transaction of $81,951.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,295,683.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Littelfuse

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Littelfuse during the first quarter worth about $30,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Littelfuse by 372.4% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 137 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 108 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 410.7% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 143 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Littelfuse by 275.0% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 165 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Littelfuse during the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. 96.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on LFUS. Baird R W raised shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Robert W. Baird upgraded Littelfuse from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $270.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Stifel Nicolaus raised Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $275.00.

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.