Principal Financial Group Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its stake in shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 268,498 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 9,479 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 1.08% of Littelfuse worth $71,216,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Pathstone Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 0.6% during the third quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 6,522 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,730,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. raised its position in Littelfuse by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 719 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $191,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 49 shares during the period. Rathbones Group PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 0.3% in the second quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 16,624 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,249,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tributary Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 1.4% during the third quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 3,940 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,045,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. 96.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Littelfuse

In other Littelfuse news, CAO Jeffrey G. Gorski sold 700 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $773,207.10. The trade was a 18.40 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

Shares of LFUS stock opened at $234.44 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $249.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $254.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a current ratio of 3.55. The stock has a market cap of $5.82 billion, a PE ratio of 30.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.26. Littelfuse, Inc. has a 1 year low of $222.91 and a 1 year high of $275.58.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last released its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $567.39 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $557.38 million. Littelfuse had a return on equity of 8.49% and a net margin of 8.88%. The business’s revenue was down 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.97 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 8.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 21st. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.99%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LFUS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer upgraded Littelfuse from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com upgraded Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Littelfuse presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.00.

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.