Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) Downgraded to “Hold” at StockNews.com

by · The Markets Daily

StockNews.com lowered shares of Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS – Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Thursday.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Littelfuse from a hold rating to a buy rating and boosted their price target for the company from $270.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $278.75.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on LFUS

Littelfuse Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ LFUS traded down $0.23 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $252.79. The company had a trading volume of 1,894 shares, compared to its average volume of 130,497. The company has a market capitalization of $6.27 billion, a PE ratio of 32.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.27. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $256.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $252.65. The company has a current ratio of 3.50, a quick ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Littelfuse has a one year low of $212.80 and a one year high of $275.58.

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

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 22nd were paid a $0.70 dividend. This is a boost from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.11%. Littelfuse’s payout ratio is currently 36.08%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.17, for a total transaction of $81,951.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,295,683.18. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.02, for a total value of $353,284.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 5,522 shares in the company, valued at $1,358,522.44. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.17, for a total transaction of $81,951.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at $16,295,683.18. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 16,328 shares of company stock valued at $4,437,986 over the last 90 days. 2.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Littelfuse

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LFUS. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in Littelfuse by 399.7% in the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,712 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,204,000 after buying an additional 3,769 shares during the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 407.9% in the 1st quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 6,186 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,499,000 after purchasing an additional 4,968 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC raised its position in shares of Littelfuse by 88.8% during the 1st quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 166,195 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $40,278,000 after buying an additional 78,153 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Littelfuse by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,679,767 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $649,442,000 after buying an additional 17,119 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Littelfuse by 27.3% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 215,944 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $52,334,000 after buying an additional 46,361 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

About Littelfuse

(Get Free Report)

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.

Featured Stories