Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Short Interest Down 7.6% in October

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) was the target of a large decline in short interest in October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 403,800 shares, a decline of 7.6% from the September 30th total of 437,200 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 108,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.7 days. Currently, 1.7% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Insider Activity at Littelfuse

In other Littelfuse news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.40, for a total transaction of $2,391,396.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,369,057.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Littelfuse news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.40, for a total transaction of $2,391,396.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,369,057.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 2,091 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 $16,383,971.10. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,242 shares of company stock valued at $3,318,974 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LFUS. CWM LLC increased its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 410.7% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 143 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 59 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 275.0% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 165 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the period. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Littelfuse in the first quarter worth $50,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 28.5% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 239 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LFUS traded down $6.64 during trading on Thursday, hitting $244.63. 117,060 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 129,917. The company has a market cap of $6.06 billion, a PE ratio of 28.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.27. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $258.60 and a 200 day moving average of $254.67. Littelfuse has a 52-week low of $213.01 and a 52-week high of $275.58. 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 (NASDAQ:LFUS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.08 by $0.63. The firm had revenue of $567.39 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $557.38 million. Littelfuse had a return on equity of 8.91% and a net margin of 8.71%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.97 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Littelfuse will post 8.14 EPS for the current year.

Littelfuse Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.14%. Littelfuse’s payout ratio is currently 32.07%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on LFUS shares. StockNews.com raised Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research note on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Oppenheimer upgraded 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. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently 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.