Vanguard Group Inc. Has $550.98 Million Holdings in Littelfuse, Inc. $LFUS

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. reduced its stake in Littelfuse, Inc. by 0.2%, now holding approximately 2.8 million shares valued at $550.98 million.
• Littelfuse recently announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.75 per share, translating to an annualized dividend of $3.00 and a yield of 1.2%.
• The company reported a Q2 EPS of $2.85, exceeding analysts' expectations, and a year-over-year revenue increase of 9.8% to $613.41 million.

Vanguard Group Inc. cut its position in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS - Free Report) by 0.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,800,530 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 6,632 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 11.33% of Littelfuse worth $550,976,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in shares of Littelfuse by 10.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 3,426 shares of the technology company's stock worth $807,000 after purchasing an additional 314 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Littelfuse during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,865,000. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its holdings in Littelfuse by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 10,733 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,529,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Littelfuse by 56.8% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,458 shares of the technology company's stock worth $344,000 after acquiring an additional 528 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Townsquare Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 87.5% during the fourth quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 6,662 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,570,000 after purchasing an additional 3,109 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.14% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Director T J. Chung sold 2,343 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 11th. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at $4,609,640.30. This trade 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. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the company's stock.

Littelfuse Price Performance

Shares of LFUS stock traded up $1.89 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $254.39. 31,960 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 212,451. Littelfuse, Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.10 and a twelve month high of $275.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 4.06. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $235.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $215.73. The firm has a market cap of $6.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.41.

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 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 company had revenue of $613.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $571.04 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.97 EPS. Littelfuse's revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 9.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

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