Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Buys 2,553 Shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. raised its stake in shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) by 23.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,338 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,553 shares during the period. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Littelfuse were worth $3,143,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of LFUS. Huntington National Bank raised its position in Littelfuse by 200.0% during the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 96 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC bought a new position in Littelfuse during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. Quent Capital LLC raised its position in Littelfuse by 525.0% during the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 125 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in Littelfuse by 181.0% during the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 163 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Jackson Hole Trust bought a new position in Littelfuse during the 4th quarter worth $40,000. 96.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Littelfuse

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on LFUS. StockNews.com raised Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Three 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. According to MarketBeat, Littelfuse has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $280.00.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

LFUS stock opened at $215.28 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $235.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $246.48. Littelfuse, Inc. has a 1-year low of $211.90 and a 1-year high of $275.58. The company has a current ratio of 3.61, a quick ratio of 2.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a market cap of $5.34 billion, a PE ratio of 47.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.27.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $2.04 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04. Littelfuse had a return on equity of 8.55% and a net margin of 5.16%. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.02 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 9.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Littelfuse Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th were given a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.30%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 20th. Littelfuse’s payout ratio is 62.22%.

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.