Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) Rating Increased to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Wednesday.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the company. Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Oppenheimer upgraded Littelfuse from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Three investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $280.00.

Littelfuse Stock Up 1.2 %

Littelfuse stock opened at $242.51 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $6.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.89, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.26. Littelfuse has a 52-week low of $222.73 and a 52-week high of $275.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.62 and a current ratio of 3.61. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $237.73 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $248.70.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $2.04 earnings per share 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.02 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Littelfuse will post 9.49 EPS for the current year.

Littelfuse Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.15%. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio is 62.22%.

Insider Transactions at Littelfuse

In other 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 in the company, valued at $773,207.10. This trade represents a 18.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Littelfuse

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Littelfuse in the fourth quarter worth approximately $8,838,000. Trexquant Investment LP purchased a new stake in Littelfuse in the 4th quarter valued at $3,642,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new position in Littelfuse during the 4th quarter valued at $1,036,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its stake in Littelfuse by 13.6% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 3,876 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $913,000 after acquiring an additional 465 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Age Alpha Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Littelfuse during the 4th quarter worth $1,175,000. Institutional investors own 96.14% 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.