Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 9,479 Shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS - Free Report) by 3.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 268,498 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 9,479 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 1.08% of Littelfuse worth $71,216,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Huntington National Bank boosted its stake in Littelfuse by 200.0% in the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 96 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. Truvestments Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Littelfuse in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 70.2% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 143 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Littelfuse during the third quarter worth about $53,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Littelfuse by 41.8% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 234 shares of the technology company's stock worth $62,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Jeffrey G. Gorski sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.02, for a total value of $174,314.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,105 shares in the company, valued at $773,207.10. This represents a 18.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on LFUS shares. Robert W. Baird raised 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 Littelfuse from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $310.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Benchmark reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Littelfuse from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. 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 data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $285.00.

Littelfuse Price Performance

Shares of LFUS traded up $0.45 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $234.44. The company's stock had a trading volume of 467,637 shares, compared to its average volume of 127,502. The company has a quick ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Littelfuse, Inc. has a one year low of $222.91 and a one year high of $275.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.26. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $249.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $254.76.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.62. The firm 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%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.97 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 8.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.19%. Littelfuse's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.99%.

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.