Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $278.75.

A number of analysts have commented on LFUS shares. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus raised Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $270.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Baird R W raised Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st.

Littelfuse Price Performance

Shares of LFUS opened at $272.20 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $258.44 and a 200-day moving average of $249.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.50 and a quick ratio of 2.42. The company has a market capitalization of $6.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.29. Littelfuse has a 1 year low of $212.80 and a 1 year high of $275.58.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $1.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.22. Littelfuse had a return on equity of 8.91% and a net margin of 8.71%. The firm had revenue of $558.49 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $540.35 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.12 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Littelfuse will post 8.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 22nd will be given a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.03%. This is a boost from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 22nd. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio is 32.07%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 300 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,295,683.18. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Littelfuse news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.17, for a total value of $81,951.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,295,683.18. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 3,786 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.92, for a total value of $1,037,061.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at $16,340,423.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 14,892 shares of company stock worth $4,084,701. Corporate insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Littelfuse

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Littelfuse in the 1st quarter worth $30,000. CWM LLC lifted its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 410.7% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 143 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Littelfuse by 275.0% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 165 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 121 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in Littelfuse during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new position in Littelfuse in the first quarter worth approximately $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

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.