MQS Management LLC Purchases Shares of 983 Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

MQS Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 983 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $261,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 399.7% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,712 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,204,000 after buying an additional 3,769 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Littelfuse by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,679,767 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $649,442,000 after purchasing an additional 17,119 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in Littelfuse by 8.9% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 40,897 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $9,910,000 after purchasing an additional 3,343 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new stake in Littelfuse in the 1st quarter valued at $2,454,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd grew its holdings in Littelfuse by 66.7% in the 1st quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 28,113 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,817,000 after buying an additional 11,247 shares in the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Littelfuse Price Performance

LFUS stock opened at $249.30 on Friday. Littelfuse, Inc. has a 1 year low of $222.91 and a 1 year high of $275.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 2.52. The stock has a market cap of $6.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $255.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $256.32.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.09 by $0.62. Littelfuse had a net margin of 8.88% and a return on equity of 8.49%. The company had revenue of $567.39 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $557.38 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.97 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 8.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.99%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.02, for a total value of $353,284.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,522 shares in the company, valued at $1,358,522.44. This represents a 20.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 2,091 shares of Littelfuse stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.65, for a total value of $574,293.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at $16,383,971.10. The trade was a 3.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,242 shares of company stock valued at $3,318,974 over the last quarter. 2.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LFUS. Oppenheimer raised shares of Littelfuse from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $270.00 to $280.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. StockNews.com upgraded Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.00.

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.