Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) Shares Gap Up After Strong Earnings

Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $235.79, but opened at $254.92. Littelfuse shares last traded at $265.53, with a volume of 75,252 shares trading hands.

The technology company reported $2.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.35 by $0.50. Littelfuse had a net margin of 4.89% and a return on equity of 9.00%. The firm had revenue of $613.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $571.04 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.97 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is an increase from Littelfuse’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.15%. Littelfuse’s payout ratio is presently 64.81%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LFUS. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Littelfuse from $182.00 to $194.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on shares of Littelfuse from $310.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Baird R W downgraded shares of Littelfuse from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Littelfuse currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $252.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Deepak Nayar sold 1,477 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.50, for a total value of $291,707.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 5,975 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,180,062.50. This represents a 19.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Littelfuse

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Tributary Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Littelfuse by 1,026.0% in the 2nd quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 65,947 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $14,952,000 after purchasing an additional 60,090 shares in the last quarter. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Littelfuse by 44.7% in the 2nd quarter. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 2,589 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $587,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. Hoese & Co LLP lifted its stake in Littelfuse by 781.3% in the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 282 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Littelfuse by 39.5% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 311,436 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $70,687,000 after purchasing an additional 88,151 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Praxis Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Littelfuse in the 2nd quarter worth $519,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $6.44 billion, a PE ratio of 60.28, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a current ratio of 3.88, a quick ratio of 2.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $224.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $214.30.

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.