Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, two have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $278.75.

Several brokerages have commented on LFUS. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 2,091 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.65, for a total transaction of $574,293.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,383,971.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 2,091 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.65, for a total transaction of $574,293.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,383,971.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.40, for a total value of $2,391,396.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,369,057.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,892 shares of company stock valued at $4,084,701 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Littelfuse

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LFUS. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Littelfuse during the second quarter valued at about $981,000. Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 628 shares during the last quarter. Algert Global LLC purchased a new stake in Littelfuse during the 2nd quarter valued at about $642,000. Earnest Partners LLC grew its position in Littelfuse by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 444,654 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $113,649,000 after acquiring an additional 10,406 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Littelfuse by 86.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 19,617 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,014,000 after purchasing an additional 9,104 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

Littelfuse Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LFUS opened at $250.92 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $258.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $249.36. Littelfuse has a twelve month low of $212.80 and a twelve month high of $275.58. The company has a quick ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 3.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.22 billion, a PE ratio of 28.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.28.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $1.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.22. Littelfuse had a net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 8.91%. The company had revenue of $558.49 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $540.35 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.12 EPS. Littelfuse’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Littelfuse will post 8.18 EPS for the current year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. This is a positive change from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.12%. Littelfuse’s payout ratio is presently 32.07%.

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.