Van ECK Associates Corp Raises Stock Position in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) by 18.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 33,409 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,127 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Littelfuse were worth $8,457,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in Littelfuse by 399.7% in the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,712 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,204,000 after purchasing an additional 3,769 shares during the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP raised its position in Littelfuse by 407.9% in the 1st quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 6,186 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,499,000 after purchasing an additional 4,968 shares during the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC raised its position in Littelfuse by 88.8% in the 1st 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. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Littelfuse by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,679,767 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $649,442,000 after purchasing an additional 17,119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in Littelfuse by 268.6% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 14,524 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,520,000 after purchasing an additional 10,584 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of the 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,522 shares in the company, valued at $1,358,522.44. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Littelfuse news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 2,091 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.65, for a total value of $574,293.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,383,971.10. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction of $353,284.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,522 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,358,522.44. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,242 shares of company stock valued at $3,318,974 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LFUS opened at $260.80 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Littelfuse, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $222.91 and a fifty-two week high of $275.58. The stock has a market cap of $6.47 billion, a PE ratio of 33.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $256.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $255.46.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.62. The business had revenue of $567.39 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $557.38 million. Littelfuse had a net margin of 8.88% and a return on equity of 8.49%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.97 EPS. Analysts expect that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 8.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.07%. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.99%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LFUS has been the subject of several research reports. Robert W. Baird upped 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. Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. TD Cowen upped their price objective 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. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.00.

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.