Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $285.00.

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Oppenheimer raised shares of Littelfuse from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com raised shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th.

Littelfuse Trading Up 0.3 %

Littelfuse stock opened at $251.79 on Thursday. Littelfuse has a 12-month low of $222.91 and a 12-month high of $275.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.25 billion, a PE ratio of 32.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.26. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $251.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $255.42.

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

Littelfuse Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.11%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. Littelfuse’s payout ratio is 35.99%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Littelfuse

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Synovus Financial Corp raised its position in Littelfuse by 11.9% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 2,857 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $758,000 after buying an additional 304 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC grew its stake in Littelfuse by 67.8% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 5,417 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,437,000 after acquiring an additional 2,188 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in shares of Littelfuse in the third quarter worth approximately $84,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Littelfuse by 6.7% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 4,094 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $998,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Littelfuse by 3.4% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 10,406 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,760,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.