Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) Rating Increased to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Wednesday.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on LFUS. Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $280.00.

Littelfuse Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of Littelfuse stock opened at $232.11 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $5.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.58, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.62 and a current ratio of 3.61. Littelfuse has a one year low of $222.73 and a one year high of $275.58. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $237.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $248.55.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $2.04 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04. Littelfuse had a net margin of 5.16% and a return on equity of 8.55%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.02 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Littelfuse will post 9.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Littelfuse Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.21%. Littelfuse’s payout ratio is 62.22%.

Insider Activity at Littelfuse

In related news, CAO Jeffrey G. Gorski sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.02, for a total value of $174,314.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $773,207.10. This represents a 18.40 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Littelfuse

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 126.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 11,418 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,029,000 after purchasing an additional 6,386 shares during the last quarter. Chesapeake Capital Corp IL acquired a new stake in shares of Littelfuse during the 3rd quarter worth about $570,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 278,158 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $73,781,000 after purchasing an additional 3,831 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 141,157 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,442,000 after purchasing an additional 5,344 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 38.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 181,141 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $48,048,000 after purchasing an additional 50,304 shares during the last quarter. 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.