Littelfuse Earnings Preview

Motley Fool Staff
Updated

Littelfuse (NAS: LFUS) didn't hit the Street's expectations last quarter, but investors hope that it will rebound this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday. Littelfuse and its subsidiaries design, manufacture, and sell circuit protection devices for use in the automotive, electronic, and electrical markets throughout the world.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: The majority of analysts back Littelfuse as a buy. But with 60% of analysts rating it a buy, Littelfuse is still below the mean analyst rating of its nearest 10 competitors, which average 66.7% buys. Analysts don't like Littelfuse as much as competitor Powell Industries overall. Two out of three analysts rate Powell Industries a buy compared to three of five for Littelfuse. Wall Street has warmed to the stock over the past three months, with analysts increasing their endorsement from hold to moderate buy.

  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $172.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 5.6% from the year-ago quarter.

  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $1.05 per share. Estimates range from $1.04 to $1.06.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 95.2% granting it an outperform rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 96.7% assigning it a rating of outperform. Fools are gung-ho about Littelfuse, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 31 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Littelfuse, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Littelfuse's profit has risen year over year by an average of 80.2% over the past five quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows gross, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter

Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3

Gross Margin

39.6%

38.7%

37.8%

41.1%

Operating Margin

20.0%

18.5%

17.0%

20.9%

Net Margin

14.3%

12.9%

13.7%

14.3%

For all our Littelfuse-specific analysis, including earnings and beyond, add Littelfuse to My Watchlist.

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At the time thisarticle was published

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