Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Increases Dividend to $0.70 Per Share

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 30th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Thursday, August 22nd will be given 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 boost from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65.

Littelfuse has increased its dividend payment by an average of 9.2% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. Littelfuse has a payout ratio of 23.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Price Performance

Littelfuse stock opened at $267.11 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.57 and a quick ratio of 2.44. The company has a market capitalization of $6.62 billion, a PE ratio of 30.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.29. Littelfuse has a one year low of $212.80 and a one year high of $305.74. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $258.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $246.35.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $1.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.22. Littelfuse had a return on equity of 8.93% and a net margin of 8.71%. The business had revenue of $558.49 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $540.35 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.12 EPS. Littelfuse’s revenue was down 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Littelfuse will post 8.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on LFUS shares. Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Baird R W upgraded Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Littelfuse in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $260.00 target price for the company. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded Littelfuse from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $270.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Littelfuse presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $267.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Littelfuse news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.17, for a total value of $81,951.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,295,683.18. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Meenal Sethna sold 6,114 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.49, for a total value of $1,568,179.86. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 22,432 shares in the company, valued at $5,753,583.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.17, for a total value 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. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 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.

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.