Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) Rating Increased to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report released on Wednesday morning.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on LFUS. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a hold rating to a buy rating and upped their target price for the company from $270.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $278.75.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

Shares of LFUS opened at $264.31 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.50 and a quick ratio of 2.42. Littelfuse has a one year low of $212.80 and a one year high of $275.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.55 billion, a PE ratio of 30.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $257.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $251.00.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $1.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $540.35 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.12 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Littelfuse will post 8.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 22nd were issued a $0.70 dividend. This is an increase from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.06%. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.07%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,522 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,358,522.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.02, for a total transaction of $353,284.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,522 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,358,522.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 3,786 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,340,423.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 16,328 shares of company stock worth $4,437,986. Company insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Littelfuse

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,679,767 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $649,442,000 after purchasing an additional 17,119 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Littelfuse by 13.2% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 501,504 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $128,179,000 after purchasing an additional 58,529 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 444,654 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $113,649,000 after buying an additional 10,406 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 13.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 419,586 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $107,244,000 after buying an additional 49,588 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. purchased a new stake in shares of Littelfuse during the 2nd quarter valued at about $100,662,000. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.