Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) has earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $280.00.

LFUS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com lowered Littelfuse from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th.

Littelfuse Stock Down 4.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ LFUS opened at $200.97 on Friday. 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 has a 1 year low of $199.70 and a 1 year high of $275.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $228.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $241.53.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $2.04 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting 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 quarter last year, the company earned $2.02 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Littelfuse will post 9.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 20th. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.22%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Littelfuse

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Littelfuse during the 4th quarter valued at about $131,579,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Littelfuse in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,865,000. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments purchased a new position in shares of Littelfuse during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $16,250,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 119.4% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 116,940 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,557,000 after acquiring an additional 63,632 shares in the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Littelfuse by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 763,396 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $179,895,000 after acquiring an additional 55,835 shares during the period. 96.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.