Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Short Interest Update

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 314,700 shares, a decline of 22.1% from the October 15th total of 403,800 shares. Approximately 1.3% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 109,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Littelfuse Price Performance

NASDAQ:LFUS traded down $8.21 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $241.09. 128,600 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 104,126. The company has a market capitalization of $5.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Littelfuse has a one year low of $222.91 and a one year high of $275.58. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $255.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $256.49.

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

Littelfuse Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.16%. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.99%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of Littelfuse 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 5,522 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,358,522.44. The trade was a 20.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 2,091 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.65, for a total transaction of $574,293.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at $16,383,971.10. The trade was a 3.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,242 shares of company stock worth $3,318,974 in the last quarter. 2.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Littelfuse

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LFUS. Huntington National Bank grew its position in Littelfuse by 200.0% in the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 96 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Littelfuse during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. CWM LLC grew its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 410.7% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 143 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of Littelfuse by 70.2% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 143 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 275.0% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 165 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Littelfuse Company Profile

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.