American Century Companies Inc. Boosts Stock Holdings in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) by 6.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 250,825 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,288 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 1.01% of Littelfuse worth $59,108,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jane Street Group LLC grew its position in Littelfuse by 126.9% in the 3rd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 11,418 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,029,000 after purchasing an additional 6,386 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Littelfuse by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 312,535 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $73,649,000 after acquiring an additional 8,588 shares during the last quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. increased its position in Littelfuse by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 953 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $225,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Littelfuse by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 260,102 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $61,293,000 after acquiring an additional 18,013 shares during the period. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Littelfuse during the 4th quarter valued at about $5,892,000. 96.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Littelfuse Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LFUS opened at $216.46 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.61 and a quick ratio of 2.62. Littelfuse, Inc. has a 1 year low of $201.97 and a 1 year high of $275.58. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $230.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $242.30. The stock has a market cap of $5.35 billion, a PE ratio of 48.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.27.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $2.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting 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 firm posted $2.02 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 9.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th were issued a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.29%. Littelfuse’s dividend payout ratio is presently 62.22%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on LFUS. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Littelfuse from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $280.00.

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.