Principal Financial Group Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its stake in shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 268,498 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 9,479 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Littelfuse were worth $71,216,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC increased its stake in Littelfuse by 6.0% during the third quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 193,719 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $51,384,000 after acquiring an additional 10,972 shares during the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 11.9% during the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 2,857 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $758,000 after purchasing an additional 304 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC increased its position in Littelfuse by 67.8% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 5,417 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,437,000 after purchasing an additional 2,188 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Littelfuse in the third quarter valued at approximately $84,000. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its position in Littelfuse by 6.7% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 4,094 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $998,000 after buying an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LFUS opened at $234.44 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $249.38 and a two-hundred day moving average of $254.75. 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 $5.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.13, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.26. Littelfuse, Inc. has a 1-year low of $222.91 and a 1-year high of $275.58.

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

Littelfuse Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st were paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.19%. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.99%.

Insider Activity at Littelfuse

In other Littelfuse news, CAO Jeffrey G. Gorski sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.02, for a total transaction of $174,314.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $773,207.10. This trade represents a 18.40 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Littelfuse 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.