Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) Reaches New 52-Week Low – Here’s Why

Shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) reached a new 52-week low during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $200.56 and last traded at $201.79, with a volume of 37505 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $210.03.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LFUS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Littelfuse from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $280.00.

Littelfuse Trading Down 4.3 %

The company has a current ratio of 3.61, a quick ratio of 2.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a market cap of $4.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.66, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $229.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $241.86.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $2.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting 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 firm earned $2.02 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 9.49 EPS for the current year.

Littelfuse Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 20th. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.22%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Littelfuse

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LFUS. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Littelfuse in the fourth quarter valued at about $131,579,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Littelfuse in the 4th quarter worth about $32,865,000. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments purchased a new stake in Littelfuse during the 4th quarter worth approximately $16,250,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 119.4% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 116,940 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,557,000 after acquiring an additional 63,632 shares during the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Littelfuse by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 763,396 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $179,895,000 after acquiring an additional 55,835 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.