Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) Upgraded by StockNews.com to “Buy”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report released on Monday.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Littelfuse from a hold rating to a buy rating and raised their price target for the company from $270.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $278.75.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LFUS opened at $252.96 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.42 and a current ratio of 3.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.98, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $258.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $249.92. Littelfuse has a fifty-two week low of $212.80 and a fifty-two week high of $275.58.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $1.97 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 analysts’ expectations of $540.35 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.12 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Littelfuse will post 8.18 EPS for the current year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd were issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.11%. This is a positive change from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.07%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 300 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.17, for a total transaction of $81,951.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,295,683.18. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.40, for a total transaction of $2,391,396.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,369,057.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 300 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.17, for a total transaction of $81,951.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at $16,295,683.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 16,328 shares of company stock worth $4,437,986. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Littelfuse

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of LFUS. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Littelfuse in the first quarter valued at $30,000. CWM LLC increased its stake in Littelfuse by 410.7% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 143 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Littelfuse by 275.0% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 165 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Littelfuse in the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in Littelfuse in the first quarter valued at $50,000. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.