Verition Fund Management LLC Makes New Investment in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

Verition Fund Management LLC purchased a new stake in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 54,591 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,480,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LFUS. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its holdings in Littelfuse by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,488 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $395,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares during the last quarter. Walleye Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Littelfuse during the third quarter worth $5,389,000. Glenmede Trust Co. NA grew its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 18.1% in the third quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 2,059 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $546,000 after buying an additional 316 shares in the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 28.6% in the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 3,553 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $942,000 after buying an additional 791 shares during the period. Finally, Thematics Asset Management boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 37.0% during the 3rd quarter. Thematics Asset Management now owns 87,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $23,077,000 after acquiring an additional 23,500 shares during the period. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Littelfuse Price Performance

Shares of LFUS opened at $246.67 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.71, a PEG ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $253.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $255.95. Littelfuse, Inc. has a twelve month low of $222.91 and a twelve month high of $275.58. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 for 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%. Littelfuse’s quarterly revenue was down 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.97 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 8.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.99%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Littelfuse

In related news, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.02, for a total value of $353,284.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,522 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,358,522.44. The trade was a 20.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on LFUS. Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of 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. StockNews.com upgraded Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $270.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.00.

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.