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

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 437,200 shares, a decline of 8.2% from the September 15th total of 476,500 shares. Approximately 1.8% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 108,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.0 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LFUS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $270.00 to $280.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Littelfuse from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Littelfuse currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.75.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 3,786 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,340,423.68. 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 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 value of $1,037,061.12. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,340,423.68. 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 can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,369,057.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 16,028 shares of company stock valued at $4,356,035. Corporate insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Littelfuse in the 1st quarter worth approximately $30,000. CWM LLC increased its holdings in Littelfuse by 410.7% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 143 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in Littelfuse by 70.2% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 143 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 275.0% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 165 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Littelfuse during the 1st quarter valued at $50,000. 96.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

Shares of LFUS stock opened at $257.55 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 3.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $257.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $253.30. Littelfuse has a 52 week low of $212.80 and a 52 week high of $275.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.38 billion, a PE ratio of 29.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.27.

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

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd were issued a $0.70 dividend. This is an increase from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.09%. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.