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

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Friday.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $270.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Littelfuse presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.00.

Littelfuse Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ LFUS opened at $259.07 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $259.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $253.77. Littelfuse has a 52 week low of $212.80 and a 52 week high of $275.58. The company has a market cap of $6.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 3.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $1.97 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 company had revenue of $558.49 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $540.35 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.12 earnings per share. Littelfuse’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Littelfuse will post 8.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd were issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.08%. This is a positive change from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 22nd. Littelfuse’s payout ratio is presently 32.07%.

Insider Activity

In other Littelfuse 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 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.40, for a total value of $2,391,396.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,369,057.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of the company’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 owns 5,522 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,358,522.44. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 16,028 shares of company stock valued at $4,356,035. Corporate insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Littelfuse

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 20.4% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 102,861 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,284,000 after purchasing an additional 17,408 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in shares of Littelfuse by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 52,126 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $13,826,000 after buying an additional 1,252 shares during the last quarter. Hunter Perkins Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 7.4% during the third quarter. Hunter Perkins Capital Management LLC now owns 4,355 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,155,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Cabot Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 1.9% during the third quarter. Cabot Wealth Management Inc. now owns 5,454 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,447,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning increased its position in Littelfuse by 32.0% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,567 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $946,000 after purchasing an additional 865 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

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.