In this article we will analyze whether Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) is a good investment right now by following the lead of some of the best investors in the world and piggybacking their ideas. There’s no better way to get these firms’ immense resources and analytical capabilities working for us than to follow their lead into their best ideas. While not all of these picks will be winners, our research shows that these picks historically outperformed the market by double digits annually.
Is Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) a healthy stock for your portfolio? The best stock pickers were turning bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund positions inched up by 6 in recent months. Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) was in 27 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic was previously 24. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that LFUS isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings).
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Phillip Gross of Adage Capital
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Do Hedge Funds Think LFUS Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At second quarter’s end, a total of 27 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 29% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards LFUS over the last 24 quarters. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Impax Asset Management, managed by Ian Simm, holds the most valuable position in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS). Impax Asset Management has a $186.5 million position in the stock, comprising 0.8% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Ariel Investments, led by John W. Rogers, holding a $93.2 million position; the fund has 0.9% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that are bullish encompass Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital and Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Ayrshire Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS), around 1.87% of its 13F portfolio. Prospector Partners is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 1.23 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to LFUS.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Adage Capital Management, managed by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, created the largest position in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS). Adage Capital Management had $21.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $6.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Renaissance Technologies, Mika Toikka’s AlphaCrest Capital Management, and Greg Eisner’s Engineers Gate Manager.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS). These stocks are Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO), Endava plc (NYSE:DAVA), SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE:SNX), Callaway Golf Company (NYSE:ELY), Lumentum Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LITE), Huaneng Power International Inc (NYSE:HNP), and EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble LFUS’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| THO | 26 | 179875 | 5 |
| DAVA | 16 | 197353 | 7 |
| SNX | 20 | 629311 | 5 |
| ELY | 39 | 559436 | -1 |
| LITE | 29 | 334727 | -2 |
| HNP | 4 | 4331 | 0 |
| EQT | 43 | 468450 | 8 |
| Average | 25.3 | 339069 | 3.1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 25.3 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $339 million. That figure was $483 million in LFUS’s case. EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Huaneng Power International Inc (NYSE:HNP) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for LFUS is 69.5. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 24.9% in 2021 through October 15th and still beat the market by 4.5 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on LFUS as the stock returned 10.2% since the end of Q2 (through 10/15) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
