KBC Group NV Purchases 96 Shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

KBC Group NV grew its position in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) by 15.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 731 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the period. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Littelfuse were worth $194,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 410.7% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 143 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 70.2% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 143 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 275.0% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 165 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the period. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new stake in Littelfuse in the 1st quarter valued at about $50,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 28.5% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 239 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

NASDAQ LFUS opened at $237.94 on Thursday. Littelfuse, Inc. has a 52-week low of $222.91 and a 52-week high of $275.58. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $254.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $256.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a current ratio of 3.55. The company has a market capitalization of $5.90 billion, a PE ratio of 30.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.28.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.62. The firm had revenue of $567.39 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $557.38 million. Littelfuse had a net margin of 8.88% and a return on equity of 8.49%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.97 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 8.47 EPS for the current year.

Littelfuse Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.18%. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.99%.

Insider Activity

In other Littelfuse news, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.02, for a total transaction of $353,284.72. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,522 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,358,522.44. This trade represents a 20.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 2,091 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.65, for a total transaction of $574,293.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at $16,383,971.10. This trade represents a 3.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,242 shares of company stock worth $3,318,974. 2.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $270.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Littelfuse has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.00.

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.