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

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 260,137 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 8,361 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 1.05% of Littelfuse worth $61,299,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Jane Street Group LLC grew its position in shares of Littelfuse by 126.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 11,418 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,029,000 after acquiring an additional 6,386 shares during the period. Chesapeake Capital Corp IL purchased a new stake in Littelfuse in the 3rd quarter worth $570,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in Littelfuse by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 278,158 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $73,781,000 after acquiring an additional 3,831 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its position in shares of Littelfuse by 3.9% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 141,157 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,442,000 after purchasing an additional 5,344 shares during the period. Finally, Eastern Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Littelfuse during the third quarter worth about $530,000. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Littelfuse Price Performance

LFUS stock opened at $254.60 on Thursday. Littelfuse, Inc. has a 52-week low of $222.73 and a 52-week high of $275.58. The business has a fifty day moving average of $237.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of $248.35. The stock has a market cap of $6.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 2.62, a current ratio of 3.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $2.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.04. Littelfuse had a net margin of 5.16% and a return on equity of 8.55%. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.02 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate 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 will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Littelfuse’s payout ratio is 62.22%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Jeffrey G. Gorski sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.02, for a total transaction of $174,314.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $773,207.10. This represents a 18.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com upgraded Littelfuse from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Littelfuse in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $280.00.

Littelfuse Company 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.