Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.40, for a total transaction of $2,391,396.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at $16,369,057.60. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Littelfuse news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 2,091 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.65, for a total value of $574,293.15. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at $16,383,971.10. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.40, for a total value of $2,391,396.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at $16,369,057.60. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 16,028 shares of company stock worth $4,356,035. Company insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Littelfuse in the first quarter worth approximately $30,000. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 410.7% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 143 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 70.2% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 143 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 275.0% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 165 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Littelfuse in the 1st quarter valued at $50,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

Littelfuse Price Performance

LFUS opened at $262.24 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $258.79 and a 200-day moving average of $253.39. The company has a market capitalization of $6.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.04, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.27. Littelfuse has a 1-year low of $212.80 and a 1-year high of $275.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.42 and a current ratio of 3.50.

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

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on LFUS shares. Oppenheimer raised Littelfuse from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $270.00 to $280.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. StockNews.com upgraded Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their target price on Littelfuse from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.