Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Get Free Report) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note issued on Friday.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Littelfuse from $182.00 to $194.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Oppenheimer cut their price target 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. Benchmark reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Baird R W cut Littelfuse from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $252.25.

Littelfuse Price Performance

NASDAQ:LFUS traded down $0.83 on Friday, hitting $225.65. The company had a trading volume of 169,095 shares, compared to its average volume of 164,024. Littelfuse has a 52 week low of $142.10 and a 52 week high of $275.58. The company has a current ratio of 3.88, a quick ratio of 2.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.23, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.38. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $206.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $215.08.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The technology company reported $2.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.37. Littelfuse had a return on equity of 9.00% and a net margin of 4.89%. The company had revenue of $554.31 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $537.60 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.76 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Littelfuse will post 9.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Littelfuse

In other Littelfuse news, SVP Deepak Nayar sold 1,477 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.50, for a total transaction of $291,707.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,975 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,180,062.50. This trade represents a 19.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Littelfuse

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LFUS. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Littelfuse in the 4th quarter worth $131,579,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new position in shares of Littelfuse during the first quarter valued at about $43,574,000. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. increased its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 39.9% in the first quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. now owns 618,215 shares of the technology company's stock worth $121,628,000 after buying an additional 176,243 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Littelfuse in the fourth quarter worth about $32,865,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Littelfuse by 60,177.7% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 113,322 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $22,295,000 after acquiring an additional 113,134 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.14% of the company's stock.

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.

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