Rathbones Group PLC Trims Stock Position in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

Rathbones Group PLC reduced its stake in shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS - Free Report) by 6.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,553 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 922 shares during the quarter. Rathbones Group PLC owned approximately 0.05% of Littelfuse worth $3,633,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in LFUS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,506,181 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $497,953,000 after buying an additional 20,538 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,040,384 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $508,893,000 after buying an additional 37,011 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 900,344 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $240,284,000 after buying an additional 14,782 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 690,217 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $151,986,000 after buying an additional 58,212 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in Littelfuse by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 652,034 shares of the technology company's stock worth $129,553,000 after purchasing an additional 11,228 shares in the last quarter. 93.39% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

LFUS traded up $0.44 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $268.30. 15,321 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 87,823. Littelfuse, Inc. has a 52 week low of $192.19 and a 52 week high of $309.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.68 billion, a PE ratio of 20.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 2.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The company's 50-day moving average is $280.13 and its 200 day moving average is $267.46.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The technology company reported $3.12 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.32 by ($0.20). Littelfuse had a net margin of 13.14% and a return on equity of 16.06%. The business had revenue of $612.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $618.83 million. On average, research analysts expect that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 12.63 EPS for the current year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 24th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.97%. This is a positive change from Littelfuse's previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 23rd. Littelfuse's dividend payout ratio is currently 19.86%.

In related news, CAO Jeffrey G. Gorski sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.15, for a total value of $189,105.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2,713 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $732,916.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

LFUS has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Littelfuse from $260.00 to $285.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 11th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Littelfuse from $240.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 4th. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Littelfuse in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They set a "hold" rating on the stock. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, Littelfuse currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $259.00.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Littelfuse

Littelfuse, Inc manufactures and sells circuit protection, power control, and sensing products in the Asia-Pacific, the Americas, and Europe. The company operates through Electronic, Transportation, and Industrial segments. The Electronics segment offers fuses and fuse accessories, positive temperature coefficient resettable fuses, 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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