Raymond James Financial Inc. Makes New $32.87 Million Investment in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 139,461 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $32,865,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned 0.56% of Littelfuse as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Littelfuse by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,807,162 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $661,508,000 after purchasing an additional 40,423 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Littelfuse during the fourth quarter worth about $131,579,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 513,679 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $121,048,000 after purchasing an additional 2,056 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 431,956 shares of the technology company's stock worth $114,607,000 after acquiring an additional 1,525 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in shares of Littelfuse by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 315,741 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $74,405,000 after purchasing an additional 37,583 shares in the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on LFUS shares. StockNews.com lowered Littelfuse from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Baird R W lowered Littelfuse from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Benchmark reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Littelfuse in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $182.00 target price (down from $225.00) on shares of Littelfuse in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $258.00.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

Littelfuse stock traded up $0.39 during trading on Monday, reaching $154.28. The company had a trading volume of 91,440 shares, compared to its average volume of 147,668. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $204.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $230.35. The company has a current ratio of 3.61, a quick ratio of 2.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Littelfuse, Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.10 and a 52 week high of $275.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.30.

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

Littelfuse Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th were paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.81%. Littelfuse's payout ratio is 62.22%.

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.