American Century Companies Inc. Has $41.23 Million Position in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) by 43.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 161,319 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 48,890 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned approximately 0.65% of Littelfuse worth $41,232,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LFUS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Littelfuse by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,679,767 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $649,442,000 after buying an additional 17,119 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Littelfuse during the fourth quarter worth $150,004,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 13.2% in the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 501,504 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $128,179,000 after purchasing an additional 58,529 shares during the last quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. acquired a new stake in Littelfuse in the second quarter valued at $100,662,000. Finally, Ariel Investments LLC raised its position in Littelfuse by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 347,223 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $84,149,000 after purchasing an additional 6,030 shares during the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. StockNews.com raised Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Littelfuse presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.75.

Insider Transactions at Littelfuse

In related news, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.02, for a total value of $353,284.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,522 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,358,522.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Littelfuse news, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.02, for a total value of $353,284.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 5,522 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,358,522.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 3,786 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.92, for a total value of $1,037,061.12. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at $16,340,423.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 16,328 shares of company stock valued at $4,437,986 in the last 90 days. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Littelfuse Trading Up 1.0 %

NASDAQ LFUS opened at $252.42 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $258.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $249.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.50 and a quick ratio of 2.42. Littelfuse, Inc. has a one year low of $212.80 and a one year high of $275.58.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 8.91%. The company 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 firm posted $3.12 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 8.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.11%. This is a positive change from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.07%.

Littelfuse 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.