Short Interest in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Drops By 8.2%

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 437,200 shares, a decline of 8.2% from the September 15th total of 476,500 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 108,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.0 days. Currently, 1.8% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on LFUS shares. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Robert W. Baird increased 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. StockNews.com raised Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $270.00 to $280.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Three equities research 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.02, for a total value of $353,284.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,522 shares in the company, valued at $1,358,522.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 3,786 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.92, for a total transaction of $1,037,061.12. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,340,423.68. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.02, for a total transaction of $353,284.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 5,522 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,358,522.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 16,028 shares of company stock valued at $4,356,035. Company insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Littelfuse

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rathbones Group PLC increased its holdings in Littelfuse by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 16,624 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,249,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd lifted its position in Littelfuse by 28.5% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 239 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 21.4% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 323 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $83,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC raised its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 14.4% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 469 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $120,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in Littelfuse by 70.2% in the 3rd 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. 96.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Littelfuse Price Performance

Shares of Littelfuse stock opened at $262.24 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.50 and a quick ratio of 2.42. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $258.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $253.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.27. Littelfuse has a one year low of $212.80 and a one year high of $275.58.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $1.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $558.49 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $540.35 million. Littelfuse had a return on equity of 8.91% and a net margin of 8.71%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.12 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Littelfuse will post 8.18 EPS for the current year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. This is a positive change from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.07%. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.07%.

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.