Brokerages Set Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Price Target at $285.00

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the seven ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $285.00.

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on LFUS shares. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer raised shares of Littelfuse from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th.

Littelfuse Price Performance

NASDAQ LFUS opened at $237.03 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.88 billion, a PE ratio of 30.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $244.73 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $253.09. Littelfuse has a 12-month low of $222.91 and a 12-month high of $275.58.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.62. Littelfuse had a net margin of 8.88% and a return on equity of 8.49%. The firm had revenue of $567.39 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $557.38 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.97 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Littelfuse will post 8.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. Littelfuse’s payout ratio is 35.99%.

Insider Transactions at Littelfuse

In other news, CAO Jeffrey G. Gorski sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.02, for a total value of $174,314.00. Following the sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 2.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Littelfuse

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new position in Littelfuse during the 2nd quarter worth about $46,037,000. Verition Fund Management LLC acquired a new position in Littelfuse during the 3rd quarter worth about $14,480,000. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in Littelfuse by 38.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 181,141 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $48,048,000 after buying an additional 50,304 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Littelfuse by 13.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 419,586 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $107,244,000 after buying an additional 49,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in Littelfuse by 43.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 161,319 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $41,232,000 after buying an additional 48,890 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.