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

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the seven brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $285.00.

Several brokerages have recently commented on LFUS. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com raised Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, 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 report on Thursday, October 17th.

Littelfuse Price Performance

LFUS opened at $235.12 on Monday. 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’s 50 day simple moving average is $244.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $252.60. The firm has a market cap of $5.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.22, a PEG ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.26. Littelfuse has a 1 year low of $222.91 and a 1 year high of $275.58.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last issued 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 $2.09 by $0.62. Littelfuse had a net margin of 8.88% and a return on equity of 8.49%. The firm had revenue of $567.39 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $557.38 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.97 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Littelfuse will post 8.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Littelfuse Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were given a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 21st. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.99%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Jeffrey G. Gorski sold 700 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.02, for a total transaction of $174,314.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $773,207.10. This trade represents a 18.40 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Littelfuse

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Pathstone Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 6,522 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,730,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 6.5% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 719 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $191,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its position in shares of Littelfuse by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,436 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $911,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Rathbones Group PLC boosted its stake in Littelfuse by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 16,624 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,249,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tributary Capital Management LLC grew its position in Littelfuse by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 3,940 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,045,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

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.