Brokerages Set Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Price Target at $278.75

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $278.75.

A number of research analysts have weighed in on LFUS shares. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Stifel Nicolaus raised Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $270.00 to $280.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 3,786 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.92, for a total transaction of $1,037,061.12. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,340,423.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Littelfuse 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 value of $353,284.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 5,522 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,358,522.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 3,786 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were 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 owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,340,423.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 16,328 shares of company stock worth $4,437,986. Corporate insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Littelfuse

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. bought a new stake in Littelfuse in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $100,662,000. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. increased its position in Littelfuse by 223.8% in the first quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 313,927 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $76,080,000 after purchasing an additional 216,985 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC purchased a new stake in Littelfuse during the second quarter valued at $46,037,000. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC lifted its position in Littelfuse by 88.8% during the first quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 166,195 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $40,278,000 after purchasing an additional 78,153 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 160.2% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 113,447 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $30,354,000 after buying an additional 69,842 shares in the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Littelfuse Stock Up 0.4 %

LFUS opened at $265.25 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.22, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $257.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $251.22. Littelfuse has a twelve month low of $212.80 and a twelve month high of $275.58. The company has a quick ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 3.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $1.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $558.49 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $540.35 million. Littelfuse had a net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 8.91%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.12 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Littelfuse will post 8.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 22nd were issued a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.06%. This is an increase from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.07%.

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.