Stock Buy: Littlefuse, Inc.

Littlefuse, Inc. (LFUS: 36.02 +0.33 +0.92%) recently hit a new 52-week high on strong Q4 results from early February that sent the current and next-year estimates spiraling higher.

Company Description

Littlefuse, Inc. designs, manufactures and sells circuit protection devices for the automotive, electronic and electrical markets worldwide. The company was founded in 1927 and has a market cap of $780 million.

Fourth-Quarter Results

Sales were up 21% from last year to $127.9 million. Earnings also came in ahead of the mark at 53 cents per share, 3 cents better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate. It was the company’s third consecutive beat, with an average surprise of 9%.

Littlefuse saw exceptional growth in its Automotive sales division, which was up 32% from last year on strong demand in Asia and a steady rebound in Europe and America. Cash from operating activities totaled $28.9 million for the quarter.

Estimates Trending Higher

Estimates had already been trending higher going into the quarterly release, but have since jumped on the strong results and optimistic view. The current-year estimate is up 41 cents in the last week to $2.35, while the next year is up 12 cents to $2.64, a solid 12% growth projection.

Valuation

The big jump in estimates has tempered the valuation picture, with shares of LFUS currently trading at a forward P/E multiple of 15X, in line with the overall market.

The Chart

LFUS has been trending higher for most of the last year after bottoming out with the market in March of 2009. More recently, shares hit a new 52-week high on the solid quarter, take a look below.