Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Given Consensus Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS - Get Free Report) has earned an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the seven brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $285.00.

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on LFUS shares. Oppenheimer upgraded Littelfuse from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, October 17th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. StockNews.com upgraded Littelfuse from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Littelfuse from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $280.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 13th.

Littelfuse Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of Littelfuse stock traded down $0.72 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $253.12. The stock had a trading volume of 94,963 shares, compared to its average volume of 129,626. The company has a market capitalization of $6.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.27. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $259.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $254.02. Littelfuse has a 52 week low of $212.80 and a 52 week high of $275.58. The company has a current ratio of 3.50, a quick ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $1.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $558.49 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $540.35 million. Littelfuse had a return on equity of 8.91% and a net margin of 8.71%. Littelfuse's quarterly revenue was down 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.12 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Littelfuse will post 8.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 22nd. This is a positive change from Littelfuse's previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. Littelfuse's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.07%.

Insider Transactions at Littelfuse

In other news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $16,369,057.60. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares of the company's stock, valued at $16,369,057.60. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,522 shares in the company, 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 16,028 shares of company stock valued at $4,356,035. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LFUS. Tectonic Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 7.0% in the third quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC now owns 1,638 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $435,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Eastern Bank bought a new stake in Littelfuse in the third quarter valued at $530,000. Signaturefd LLC boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 17.5% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 551 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $146,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 0.8% in the third quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 261,134 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $69,266,000 after acquiring an additional 1,996 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 20.4% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 102,861 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $27,284,000 after acquiring an additional 17,408 shares in the last quarter. 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.