Baird Financial Group Inc. Lowers Stake in Littelfuse, Inc. $LFUS

Key Points

• Baird Financial Group Inc. has significantly reduced its holdings in Littelfuse, Inc. by 83.5% during the first quarter of the year, owning only 1,576 shares after selling 7,995.
• Several other investors, including First Horizon Advisors Inc. and Fifth Third Bancorp, have increased their positions in Littelfuse, which is currently 96.14% owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
• Littelfuse recently raised its quarterly dividend to $0.75 per share, reflecting a positive shift from its previous dividend and indicating a 1.1% yield on an annualized basis.

Baird Financial Group Inc. decreased its position in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS - Free Report) by 83.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,576 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 7,995 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Littelfuse were worth $310,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LFUS. Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Littelfuse during the first quarter worth about $238,000. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Littelfuse by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 68,497 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $13,476,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Littelfuse by 32.6% in the 1st quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 3,563 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $701,000 after purchasing an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. grew its position in shares of Littelfuse by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 15,573 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $3,064,000 after buying an additional 332 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC purchased a new position in shares of Littelfuse in the 1st quarter valued at $29,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LFUS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Littelfuse from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Benchmark reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Littelfuse currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $234.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Littelfuse

In other news, Director T J. Chung sold 2,343 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.11, for a total transaction of $576,635.73. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 18,730 shares in the company, valued at $4,609,640.30. The trade was a 11.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Ryan K. Stafford sold 10,206 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $261.34, for a total transaction of $2,667,236.04. Following the sale, the vice president owned 30,727 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,030,194.18. This trade represents a 24.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 25,759 shares of company stock worth $6,697,362. 2.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

Shares of LFUS stock traded down $7.21 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $263.96. The stock had a trading volume of 137,262 shares, compared to its average volume of 153,371. Littelfuse, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.10 and a fifty-two week high of $271.81. The firm has a market cap of $6.54 billion, a PE ratio of 54.99, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 4.06 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $248.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $218.13.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. 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 5.30% and a return on equity of 9.74%. The business had revenue of $613.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $571.04 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.97 EPS. The business's revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Littelfuse has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 2.650-2.850 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 9.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is an increase from Littelfuse's previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. Littelfuse's payout ratio is 62.50%.

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.