Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Boosts Stake in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

Key Points

• Westwood Holdings Group Inc. increased its ownership in Littelfuse, acquiring 9,793 shares, bringing its total stake to 357,157 shares or approximately 1.45% of the company, valued at $70.27 million.
• Littelfuse reported a quarterly EPS of $2.85, exceeding analysts’ expectations of $2.35, along with a revenue of $613.41 million, representing a 9.8% increase year-on-year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend increase to $0.75 per share, up from $0.70, with the next payment scheduled for September 4th, leading to an annualized dividend yield of 1.2%.

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. raised its position in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS - Free Report) by 2.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 357,157 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 9,793 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. owned 1.45% of Littelfuse worth $70,267,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LFUS. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Littelfuse in the fourth quarter worth $32,865,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Littelfuse by 60,177.7% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 113,322 shares of the technology company's stock worth $22,295,000 after purchasing an additional 113,134 shares in the last quarter. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments purchased a new stake in shares of Littelfuse during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $16,250,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 119.4% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 116,940 shares of the technology company's stock worth $27,557,000 after purchasing an additional 63,632 shares during the period. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Littelfuse by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 763,396 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $179,895,000 after purchasing an additional 55,835 shares during the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on LFUS shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. Benchmark reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Littelfuse in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Littelfuse from $182.00 to $194.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on Littelfuse from $310.00 to $275.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Baird R W downgraded Littelfuse from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $249.67.

Littelfuse Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of Littelfuse stock traded up $1.91 during trading on Friday, hitting $249.31. The company's stock had a trading volume of 132,753 shares, compared to its average volume of 209,720. Littelfuse, Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.10 and a 52 week 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 has a market capitalization of $6.18 billion, a PE ratio of 51.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $230.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $215.20.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $2.85 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 firm had revenue of $613.41 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $571.04 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.97 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 9.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Littelfuse Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a $0.75 dividend. This is a boost from Littelfuse's previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 presently 58.33%.

Littelfuse Company 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.