Reviewing Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) & Omron (OTCMKTS:OMRNY)

Omron (OTCMKTS:OMRNY) and Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) are both mid-cap technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, dividends and institutional ownership.

Dividends

Omron pays an annual dividend of $0.47 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Littelfuse pays an annual dividend of $3.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Omron pays out 44.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Littelfuse pays out -640.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Littelfuse has increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

1.1% of Omron shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.1% of Littelfuse shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Littelfuse shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Omron and Littelfuse”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Omron	$5.10 billion	1.53	$188.01 million	$1.05	35.91
Littelfuse	$2.61 billion	3.76	-$71.70 million	($0.50)	-774.49

Omron has higher revenue and earnings than Littelfuse. Littelfuse is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Omron, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Omron and Littelfuse, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Omron	0	2	0	0	2.00
Littelfuse	0	2	4	0	2.67

Littelfuse has a consensus target price of $465.83, indicating a potential upside of 20.29%. Given Littelfuse’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Littelfuse is more favorable than Omron.

Profitability

This table compares Omron and Littelfuse’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Omron	4.04%	3.68%	2.42%
Littelfuse	-0.31%	13.02%	8.32%

Volatility & Risk

Omron has a beta of 1.22, meaning that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Littelfuse has a beta of 1.48, meaning that its share price is 48% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Littelfuse beats Omron on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Omron

OMRON Corporation engages in industrial automation, device and module solutions, social systems, and healthcare businesses worldwide. The Industrial Automation Business offers sensors, switches, safety and control components, relays, motion and drives, robotics, energy conservation, power supplies, and automation system products. It also offers environmental mobility, digital devices, food and commodity, logistic and warehouse automation, medical, robotic, panel, vision, software, and traceability related solutions. The Social Systems, Solutions and Service Business provides energy, public transport, traffic safety, network protection, payment, infrastructure monitoring, management service, and DX solutions, as well as offers remote surveillance/monitoring, automation/robotics, software development, engineering/maintenance, and other services. The Healthcare Business provides cardiovascular, respiratory care, pain management, remote patient monitoring, and other solutions. The Device and Module Solutions Business offers relays, switches, connectors, and sensors. OMRON Corporation was founded in 1933 and is headquartered in Kyoto, Japan.

About Littelfuse

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. This segment serves industrial motor drives and power conversion, automotive electronics, electric vehicle and related charging infrastructure, aerospace, power supplies, data centers, telecommunications, medical devices, alternative energy, building and home automation, appliances, and mobile electronics markets. The Transportation segment provides blade, resettable, and high-current and high-voltage fuses, as well as battery cable protectors; fuses, switches, relays, circuit breakers, and power distribution modules; and sensor products. This segment serves heavy-duty truck, construction, agriculture, material handling, and marine. The Industrial segment offers industrial fuses, protection relays, contactors, transformers, residual current devices, ground fault circuit interrupters, residual current monitors, arc fault detection devices, and temperature sensors for use in renewable energy and energy storage systems, electric vehicle infrastructure, HVAC systems, industrial safety, non-residential construction, MRO, mining, and factory automation. It sells its products through distributors, direct sales force, and manufacturers' representatives. Littelfuse, Inc. was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.