Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Short Interest Update

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 476,500 shares, a drop of 14.4% from the August 31st total of 556,900 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 116,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.1 days. Currently, 1.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LFUS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective 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. TD Cowen raised their price target on Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. StockNews.com upgraded Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $270.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Littelfuse currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at Littelfuse

In related news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.40, for a total value of $2,391,396.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,369,057.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Littelfuse news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 3,786 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.92, for a total transaction of $1,037,061.12. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,340,423.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.40, for a total transaction of $2,391,396.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,369,057.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 16,328 shares of company stock worth $4,437,986. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 0.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,679,767 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $649,442,000 after acquiring an additional 17,119 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 13.2% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 501,504 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $128,179,000 after purchasing an additional 58,529 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 2.4% in the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 444,654 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $113,649,000 after purchasing an additional 10,406 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Littelfuse by 13.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 419,586 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $107,244,000 after buying an additional 49,588 shares during the period. Finally, Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. bought a new position in shares of Littelfuse during the second quarter worth about $100,662,000. Institutional investors own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

Littelfuse Price Performance

Shares of LFUS stock opened at $264.31 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 3.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Littelfuse has a 12-month low of $212.80 and a 12-month high of $275.58. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $257.21 and a 200-day moving average of $250.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.28.

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

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.06%. This is a boost from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 22nd. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.07%.

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.