StockNews.com Upgrades Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) to Buy

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Wednesday morning.

Several other research firms have also commented on LFUS. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $280.00.

Littelfuse Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LFUS opened at $209.79 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $230.69 and its 200-day moving average price is $243.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.62, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.27. Littelfuse has a one year low of $201.97 and a one year high of $275.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.61 and a quick ratio of 2.62.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $2.04 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04. Littelfuse had a net margin of 5.16% and a return on equity of 8.55%. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.02 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Littelfuse will post 9.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.33%. Littelfuse’s payout ratio is currently 62.22%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Littelfuse

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pathstone Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 6,522 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,730,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. increased its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 953 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $225,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 7,188 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,694,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Huntington National Bank increased its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 200.0% in the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 96 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Studio Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Studio Investment Management LLC now owns 1,691 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $449,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.