StockNews.com Downgrades Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) to Hold

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) was downgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Tuesday.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer raised shares of Littelfuse from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Littelfuse currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $280.00.

Littelfuse Price Performance

LFUS opened at $233.20 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.82, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.26. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $238.64 and a 200-day moving average of $249.50. The company has a quick ratio of 2.62, a current ratio of 3.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Littelfuse has a 12-month low of $222.73 and a 12-month high of $275.58.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $2.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.04. Littelfuse had a return on equity of 8.55% and a net margin of 5.16%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.02 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Littelfuse will post 9.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Jeffrey G. Gorski sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.02, for a total transaction of $174,314.00. Following 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 2.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Littelfuse

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 747,082 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $198,164,000 after buying an additional 24,571 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Littelfuse by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 511,623 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $135,708,000 after acquiring an additional 10,119 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 0.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 431,956 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $114,607,000 after acquiring an additional 1,525 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 2.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 303,947 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $80,622,000 after acquiring an additional 8,195 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its position in shares of Littelfuse by 0.6% in the third quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 297,260 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $78,848,000 after purchasing an additional 1,819 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.