Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) Rating Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Tuesday.

LFUS has been the topic of several other reports. Benchmark reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Oppenheimer upgraded Littelfuse from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $280.00.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

Shares of LFUS stock traded down $0.73 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $232.78. The stock had a trading volume of 182,917 shares, compared to its average volume of 164,570. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $5.78 billion, a PE ratio of 51.73, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.26. The stock's 50 day moving average is $238.11 and its 200 day moving average is $249.15. Littelfuse has a twelve month low of $222.73 and a twelve month high of $275.58.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $2.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate 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 company posted $2.02 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Littelfuse will post 9.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Littelfuse's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 62.22%.

Insider Transactions at Littelfuse

In other Littelfuse news, CAO Jeffrey G. Gorski sold 700 shares of the 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 owns 3,105 shares of the company's stock, valued at $773,207.10. This trade represents a 18.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 2.30% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Littelfuse

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its position in shares of Littelfuse by 41.4% in the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 2,252 shares of the technology company's stock worth $576,000 after acquiring an additional 659 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning increased its holdings in Littelfuse by 30.3% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 2,702 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $691,000 after purchasing an additional 628 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Littelfuse in the second quarter valued at about $981,000. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 24.8% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 5,881 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,560,000 after purchasing an additional 1,169 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its position in shares of Littelfuse by 37.5% in the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 4,765 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,264,000 after buying an additional 1,300 shares during the period. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.