Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Sells 28,765 Shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD reduced its position in shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS - Free Report) by 24.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 87,827 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 28,765 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned approximately 0.35% of Littelfuse worth $20,697,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 293.9% in the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 3,711 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $872,000 after purchasing an additional 2,769 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its stake in Littelfuse by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 16,299 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $3,841,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. boosted its position in Littelfuse by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. now owns 441,972 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $104,151,000 after buying an additional 18,483 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 165.6% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,607 shares of the technology company's stock worth $379,000 after buying an additional 1,002 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA increased its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA now owns 43,373 shares of the technology company's stock worth $10,221,000 after buying an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com lowered Littelfuse from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Benchmark restated a "hold" rating on shares of Littelfuse in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Baird R W lowered shares of Littelfuse from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on shares of Littelfuse from $310.00 to $275.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Littelfuse from $182.00 to $194.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $252.25.

Littelfuse Trading Down 2.2 %

Littelfuse stock traded down $4.38 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $191.52. 91,347 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 156,438. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $189.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $224.14. The company has a quick ratio of 2.62, a current ratio of 3.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Littelfuse, Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.10 and a 12 month high of $275.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.60, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.38.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The technology company reported $2.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.37. The company had revenue of $554.31 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $537.60 million. Littelfuse had a return on equity of 8.55% and a net margin of 5.16%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.76 EPS. Analysts forecast that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 9.49 EPS for the current year.

Littelfuse Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 22nd. Littelfuse's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 64.81%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Littelfuse

In other news, SVP Deepak Nayar sold 1,477 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.50, for a total value of $291,707.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 5,975 shares in the company, valued at $1,180,062.50. This trade represents a 19.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.