Littelfuse, Inc. (LFUS) To Go Ex-Dividend on May 22nd

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 24th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 22nd will be paid a dividend of 0.70 per share by the technology company on Thursday, June 5th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 22nd.

Littelfuse has increased its dividend by an average of 10.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 15 years. Littelfuse has a dividend payout ratio of 25.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Littelfuse to earn $11.56 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.2%.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

Shares of LFUS opened at $216.56 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.62 and a current ratio of 3.61. The company has a market capitalization of $5.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.12, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.38. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $186.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $221.01. Littelfuse has a 1 year low of $142.10 and a 1 year high of $275.58.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The technology company reported $2.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.37. The business had revenue of $554.31 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $537.60 million. Littelfuse had a net margin of 5.16% and a return on equity of 8.55%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.76 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Littelfuse will post 9.49 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LFUS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Littelfuse from $182.00 to $194.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Baird R W lowered shares of Littelfuse from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Littelfuse from $310.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.25.

Insider Activity at Littelfuse

In other Littelfuse news, SVP Deepak Nayar sold 1,477 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.50, for a total transaction of $291,707.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,975 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,180,062.50. This trade represents a 19.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in Littelfuse by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 32,206 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,337,000 after acquiring an additional 1,107 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 93.6% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 20,073 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,892,000 after buying an additional 9,706 shares during the period. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 42.0% in the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 311 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the period. 96.14% of the stock is 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.