Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) Trading 5.4% Higher After Dividend Announcement

Shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) traded up 5.4% during trading on Wednesday after the company announced a dividend. The company traded as high as $236.68 and last traded at $236.04. 54,939 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 55% from the average session volume of 123,196 shares. The stock had previously closed at $224.00.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.99%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LFUS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. 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 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $280.00.

Littelfuse Stock Up 3.4 %

The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market cap of $6.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.25, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.26. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $239.64 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $250.60.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $2.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.04. Littelfuse had a return on equity of 8.49% and a net margin of 8.88%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.02 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 8.47 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Littelfuse

In related news, CAO Jeffrey G. Gorski sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.02, for a total transaction of $174,314.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,105 shares in the company, valued at approximately $773,207.10. This trade represents a 18.40 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Littelfuse

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LFUS. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its position in shares of Littelfuse by 14.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 3,378 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $896,000 after buying an additional 430 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 41.4% in the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 2,252 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $576,000 after acquiring an additional 659 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 86.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 19,617 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,014,000 after purchasing an additional 9,104 shares in the last quarter. Algert Global LLC bought a new stake in shares of Littelfuse during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $642,000. Finally, Creative Planning increased its position in Littelfuse by 30.3% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 2,702 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $691,000 after purchasing an additional 628 shares in 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.