Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $280.00.

LFUS has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th.

Littelfuse Stock Down 3.9 %

Littelfuse stock opened at $223.07 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $237.63 and a 200-day moving average of $248.17. The company has a quick ratio of 2.62, a current ratio of 3.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.54 billion, a PE ratio of 49.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.26. Littelfuse has a twelve month low of $222.30 and a twelve month high of $275.58.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $2.04 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04. Littelfuse had a net margin of 5.16% and a return on equity of 8.55%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.02 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Littelfuse will post 9.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 62.22%.

Insider Transactions at Littelfuse

In other news, CAO Jeffrey G. Gorski sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.02, for a total value of $174,314.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $773,207.10. This represents a 18.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Forum Financial Management LP bought a new position in shares of Littelfuse in the fourth quarter worth about $222,000. Voloridge Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Littelfuse in the fourth quarter worth about $4,176,000. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. raised its holdings in Littelfuse by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 347,364 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $81,856,000 after buying an additional 9,705 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its holdings in Littelfuse by 151.1% in the 4th quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 21,974 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,178,000 after buying an additional 13,224 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Snowden Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Littelfuse by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Snowden Capital Advisors LLC now owns 16,413 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,868,000 after buying an additional 86 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.