Van ECK Associates Corp Has $9.60 Million Holdings in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS - Free Report) by 21.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 40,740 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 7,331 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp owned approximately 0.16% of Littelfuse worth $9,600,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Jane Street Group LLC lifted its holdings in Littelfuse by 126.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 11,418 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,029,000 after buying an additional 6,386 shares in the last quarter. Chesapeake Capital Corp IL acquired a new position in Littelfuse during the 3rd quarter worth $570,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in Littelfuse by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 278,158 shares of the technology company's stock worth $73,781,000 after buying an additional 3,831 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in Littelfuse by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 141,157 shares of the technology company's stock worth $37,442,000 after buying an additional 5,344 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eastern Bank acquired a new position in Littelfuse during the 3rd quarter worth $530,000. 96.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com raised Littelfuse from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Littelfuse in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $280.00.

Littelfuse Stock Up 0.5 %

LFUS stock traded up $1.26 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $255.16. 168,279 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 162,239. The firm's 50-day moving average is $237.67 and its 200-day moving average is $248.35. Littelfuse, Inc. has a 12 month low of $222.73 and a 12 month high of $275.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.61 and a quick ratio of 2.62. The company has a market cap of $6.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.70, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.26.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $2.04 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $2.04. Littelfuse had a net margin of 5.16% and a return on equity of 8.55%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.02 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 9.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Littelfuse Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.10%. Littelfuse's dividend payout ratio is presently 62.22%.

Insider Transactions at Littelfuse

In other news, CAO Jeffrey G. Gorski sold 700 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.02, for a total transaction of $174,314.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,105 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $773,207.10. This trade represents a 18.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.30% of the company's stock.

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.