Heartland Advisors Inc. Invests $1.26 Million in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

Key Points

• Heartland Advisors Inc. acquired 6,418 shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS), valued at approximately $1,263,000, in the first quarter of the year.
• During the fourth quarter, Norges Bank and Raymond James Financial Inc. made significant purchases in Littelfuse, increasing institutional ownership to 96.14%.
• Littelfuse reported a quarterly EPS of $2.19, exceeding analysts' expectations of $1.82, with revenue up 3.5% year-over-year at $554.31 million.

Heartland Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 6,418 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $1,263,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Littelfuse by 1.1% during the first quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,142 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,208,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its holdings in Littelfuse by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 10,733 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,529,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its holdings in Littelfuse by 30.5% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 325 shares of the technology company's stock worth $64,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Snowden Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Littelfuse by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Snowden Capital Advisors LLC now owns 16,413 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,868,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Global X Japan Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 33.5% in the first quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 347 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $68,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Deepak Nayar sold 1,477 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.50, for a total value of $291,707.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 5,975 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,180,062.50. This represents a 19.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.50% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on LFUS shares. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Littelfuse from $182.00 to $194.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Oppenheimer lowered 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. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Baird R W downgraded shares of Littelfuse from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Littelfuse in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $252.25.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

LFUS traded up $32.35 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $268.14. 220,672 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 213,766. The firm has a market cap of $6.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.39. The stock's fifty day moving average is $223.85 and its 200 day moving average is $213.98. The company has a quick ratio of 2.75, a current ratio of 3.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Littelfuse, Inc. has a one year low of $142.10 and a one year high of $275.56.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $2.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.35 by $0.50. The firm had revenue of $613.41 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $571.04 million. Littelfuse had a net margin of 4.89% and a return on equity of 9.00%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.97 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 9.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.12%. This is an increase from Littelfuse's previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. Littelfuse's dividend payout ratio is presently 64.81%.

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.