Pacer Advisors Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

Key Points

• Pacer Advisors Inc. has reduced its stake in Littelfuse by 66.6%, selling 4,160 shares and now holds 2,088 shares valued at $411,000.
• Littelfuse, Inc. has announced a quarterly dividend increase from $0.70 to $0.75, to be paid to stockholders on September 4th.
• Analysts have varied opinions on Littelfuse, with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $249.67.

Pacer Advisors Inc. reduced its position in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS - Free Report) by 66.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,088 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 4,160 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Littelfuse were worth $411,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of LFUS. Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its holdings in Littelfuse by 80.5% during the first quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 5,023 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $988,000 after acquiring an additional 2,240 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 806.0% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 19,253 shares of the technology company's stock worth $4,537,000 after purchasing an additional 17,128 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 1.9% in the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 137,047 shares of the technology company's stock worth $26,963,000 after purchasing an additional 2,571 shares during the last quarter. Palisade Capital Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 6.5% in the first quarter. Palisade Capital Management LP now owns 183,400 shares of the technology company's stock worth $36,082,000 after purchasing an additional 11,157 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 206.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 576 shares of the technology company's stock worth $113,000 after purchasing an additional 388 shares during the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Littelfuse Trading Down 0.8%

NASDAQ LFUS traded down $1.95 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $249.66. 103,228 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 216,840. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $228.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $214.77. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. Littelfuse, Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.10 and a 52 week high of $275.56. The stock has a market cap of $6.19 billion, a PE ratio of 51.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.41.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $2.85 earnings per share 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 analysts' expectations of $571.04 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.97 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 9.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 4th. Stockholders 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. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Littelfuse's payout ratio is currently 58.33%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on LFUS shares. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on Littelfuse from $310.00 to $275.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Littelfuse from $182.00 to $194.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Baird R W cut Littelfuse from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Benchmark reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Littelfuse in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Littelfuse from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Saturday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given 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 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.