Prospector Partners LLC Purchases 320 Shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

Prospector Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 71,930 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 320 shares during the period. Littelfuse accounts for about 2.1% of Prospector Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Prospector Partners LLC’s holdings in Littelfuse were worth $18,385,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. bought a new position in shares of Littelfuse during the second quarter valued at approximately $100,662,000. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. increased its position in Littelfuse by 223.8% during the 1st quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 313,927 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $76,080,000 after buying an additional 216,985 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC purchased a new position in Littelfuse during the second quarter valued at $46,037,000. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 88.8% in the first quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 166,195 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $40,278,000 after acquiring an additional 78,153 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 160.2% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 113,447 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $30,354,000 after acquiring an additional 69,842 shares during the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on LFUS. StockNews.com raised Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $270.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target 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. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Littelfuse has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.75.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LFUS opened at $260.50 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 3.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $257.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $250.27. Littelfuse, Inc. has a 52-week low of $212.80 and a 52-week high of $275.58. The company has a market cap of $6.46 billion, a PE ratio of 29.84, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.28.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $1.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $558.49 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $540.35 million. Littelfuse had a net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 8.91%. The firm’s revenue was down 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.12 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 8.18 EPS for the current year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd were issued a $0.70 dividend. This is an increase from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.07%. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.07%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.02, for a total transaction 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 approximately $1,358,522.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.02, for a total transaction 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 approximately $1,358,522.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at $16,295,683.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 16,328 shares of company stock valued at $4,437,986. Insiders own 2.30% 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.