Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.70 Per Share

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 30th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd will be paid a dividend of 0.70 per share by the technology company on Thursday, September 5th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.05%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 22nd. This is a positive change from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65.

Littelfuse has increased its dividend payment by an average of 9.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. Littelfuse has a dividend payout ratio of 23.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Littelfuse to earn $11.20 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.2%.

Littelfuse Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of LFUS traded down $0.46 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $266.65. 10,787 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 137,397. The company has a current ratio of 3.57, a quick ratio of 2.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Littelfuse has a 1-year low of $212.80 and a 1-year high of $275.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.61 billion, a PE ratio of 30.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.29. The business has a fifty day moving average of $258.14 and a 200-day moving average of $246.35.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last issued its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $558.49 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $540.35 million. Littelfuse had a return on equity of 8.93% and a net margin of 8.71%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.12 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Littelfuse will post 8.47 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LFUS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Littelfuse from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 15th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Robert W. Baird upgraded Littelfuse from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $270.00 to $300.00 in a report on Friday, May 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Littelfuse in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $260.00 price target for the company. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Littelfuse presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $267.50.

Insider Transactions at Littelfuse

In other news, SVP Deepak Nayar sold 1,305 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.25, for a total transaction of $326,576.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,158,657.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, SVP Deepak Nayar sold 1,305 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.25, for a total transaction of $326,576.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,158,657.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.17, for a total value of $81,951.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,295,683.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,938 shares of company stock valued at $2,545,503 over the last three months. Company insiders own 2.30% 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.