Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) Stock Rating Upgraded by Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a research note released on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. Oppenheimer currently has $310.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on LFUS. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $270.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. StockNews.com cut Littelfuse from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.00.

Littelfuse Price Performance

LFUS opened at $259.07 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $259.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $253.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.50 and a quick ratio of 2.42. Littelfuse has a 1 year low of $212.80 and a 1 year high of $275.58. The firm has a market cap of $6.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.68, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.27.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $1.97 earnings per share (EPS) 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 business had revenue of $558.49 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $540.35 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.12 EPS. Littelfuse’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Littelfuse will post 8.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 22nd were paid a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.08%. This is a boost from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.07%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.40, for a total value of $2,391,396.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,369,057.60. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Littelfuse news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 2,091 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.65, for a total value of $574,293.15. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,383,971.10. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was 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 directly owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at $16,369,057.60. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 16,028 shares of company stock valued at $4,356,035 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Littelfuse

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LFUS. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. bought a new stake in Littelfuse in the second quarter worth $100,662,000. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 223.8% during the first quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 313,927 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $76,080,000 after purchasing an additional 216,985 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC bought a new position in shares of Littelfuse during the second quarter valued at $46,037,000. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 88.8% during the first quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 166,195 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $40,278,000 after purchasing an additional 78,153 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 13.2% during the second 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 in the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.