Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) Shares Sold by Jupiter Asset Management Ltd.

Key Points

• Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. reduced its stake in Littelfuse, Inc. by 2.2%, owning 82,778 shares worth approximately $16.3 million after selling 1,850 shares during the first quarter.
• Littelfuse recently announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.75 per share, effective September 4th, which reflects a return of 1.2% yield based on an annualized rate of $3.00.
• In its latest earnings report, Littelfuse exceeded analyst expectations with an EPS of $2.85 and a year-over-year revenue growth of 9.8%, totaling $613.41 million.

Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. decreased its holdings in shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS - Free Report) by 2.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 82,778 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 1,850 shares during the quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. owned about 0.33% of Littelfuse worth $16,286,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in LFUS. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 228.2% in the first quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 128 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in Littelfuse by 30.5% in the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 325 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its position in 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. raised its position in 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 period. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd raised its position in Littelfuse by 42.8% in the first quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 367 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $72,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.14% of the company's stock.

Littelfuse Stock Down 0.8%

LFUS stock traded down $1.90 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $247.28. 27,664 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 216,111. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. Littelfuse, Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.10 and a 12-month high of $275.56. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $229.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $215.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.41.

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

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. This is a boost from Littelfuse's previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. Littelfuse's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 58.33%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on LFUS. Oppenheimer cut their price objective on Littelfuse from $310.00 to $275.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Baird R W lowered Littelfuse from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Wall Street Zen raised Littelfuse from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Littelfuse from $182.00 to $194.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Benchmark reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $249.67.

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.