Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Position Lifted by Entropy Technologies LP

Key Points

• Entropy Technologies LP doubled its holdings in Littelfuse, Inc. by acquiring 1,700 shares, bringing its total to 3,400 shares worth approximately $669,000.
• Littelfuse recently reported $2.85 earnings per share for its latest quarter, exceeding the expected $2.35, and its revenue rose by 9.8% year-over-year.
• The company announced a dividend increase to $0.75 per share, with an ex-dividend date of August 21, representing a 1.2% yield on an annualized basis.

Entropy Technologies LP increased its stake in shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS - Free Report) by 100.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,400 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 1,700 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP's holdings in Littelfuse were worth $669,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Littelfuse by 1.1% in the first quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,142 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,208,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina increased its position in shares of Littelfuse by 0.7% in 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 acquiring an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its position in shares of Littelfuse by 30.5% in the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 325 shares of the technology company's stock worth $64,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Snowden Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Littelfuse by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Snowden Capital Advisors LLC now owns 16,413 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,868,000 after acquiring an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global X Japan Co. Ltd. increased its position 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 worth $68,000 after acquiring an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Littelfuse news, Director T J. Chung sold 2,343 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.11, for a total transaction of $576,635.73. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 18,730 shares in the company, valued at $4,609,640.30. This represents a 11.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 2.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Littelfuse Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of LFUS stock traded down $5.69 on Friday, hitting $250.64. The stock had a trading volume of 93,223 shares, compared to its average volume of 219,282. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.41. The stock's 50 day moving average is $235.14 and its 200-day moving average is $215.82. 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, Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.10 and a 52-week high of $275.56.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $2.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.35 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $613.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $571.04 million. Littelfuse had a net margin of 5.30% and a return on equity of 9.74%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.97 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 9.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on LFUS. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Littelfuse from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. Benchmark reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Littelfuse from $182.00 to $194.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Littelfuse from $310.00 to $275.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $234.50.

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.