Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Shares Sold by Alberta Investment Management Corp

Key Points

• Alberta Investment Management Corp reduced its stake in Littelfuse, Inc. by 5.3%, selling 1,307 shares during the first quarter, and now owns approximately 0.09% of the company worth $4,574,000.
• Various institutional investors have increased their holdings in Littelfuse, with Neuberger Berman Group LLC and T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raising their stakes in the 4th quarter.
• Littelfuse has declared an increase in its quarterly dividend from $0.70 to $0.75, with the record date for investors set on August 21st, representing a 1.2% yield.

Alberta Investment Management Corp lowered its position in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS - Free Report) by 5.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,248 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 1,307 shares during the quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp owned about 0.09% of Littelfuse worth $4,574,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Littelfuse by 228.2% during the first quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 128 shares of the technology company's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 105.6% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 333 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $66,000 after purchasing an additional 171 shares during the period. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Littelfuse by 33.5% during the 1st quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 347 shares of the technology company's stock worth $68,000 after buying an additional 87 shares during the period. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd lifted its holdings in Littelfuse by 42.8% during the 1st quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 367 shares of the technology company's stock worth $72,000 after buying an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on LFUS. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Littelfuse from $182.00 to $194.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Baird R W downgraded shares of Littelfuse from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Oppenheimer decreased their target price on Littelfuse from $310.00 to $275.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Benchmark reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Littelfuse in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Littelfuse currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $249.67.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

Littelfuse stock traded down $1.78 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $247.40. 128,191 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 216,521. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $229.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $215.01. Littelfuse, Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.10 and a twelve month high of $275.56. The firm has a market cap of $6.13 billion, a PE ratio of 51.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 4.06.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $2.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.35 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $613.41 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $571.04 million. Littelfuse had a net margin of 5.30% and a return on equity of 9.74%. The business's revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.97 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 9.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 4th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. This is an increase from Littelfuse's previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. Littelfuse's payout ratio is currently 58.33%.

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.