Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) versus TDK (OTCMKTS:TTDKY) Financial Comparison

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS) and TDK (OTCMKTS:TTDKY) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, dividends and valuation.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

96.1% of Littelfuse shares are held by institutional investors. 2.5% of Littelfuse shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of TDK shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Littelfuse pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. TDK pays an annual dividend of $0.15 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Littelfuse pays out 57.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. TDK pays out 24.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Littelfuse has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years. Littelfuse is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Volatility & Risk

Littelfuse has a beta of 1.5, indicating that its share price is 50% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TDK has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Littelfuse and TDK’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Littelfuse	5.66%	9.89%	6.26%
TDK	7.55%	9.48%	4.77%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Littelfuse and TDK”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Littelfuse	$2.32 billion	2.63	$100.19 million	$5.25	46.65
TDK	$14.48 billion	2.25	$1.10 billion	$0.61	27.51

TDK has higher revenue and earnings than Littelfuse. TDK is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Littelfuse, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Littelfuse and TDK, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Littelfuse	0	3	2	1	2.67
TDK	0	0	0	0	0.00

Littelfuse currently has a consensus price target of $292.50, suggesting a potential upside of 19.44%. Given Littelfuse’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Littelfuse is more favorable than TDK.

Summary

Littelfuse beats TDK on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. This segment serves industrial motor drives and power conversion, automotive electronics, electric vehicle and related charging infrastructure, aerospace, power supplies, data centers, telecommunications, medical devices, alternative energy, building and home automation, appliances, and mobile electronics markets. The Transportation segment provides blade, resettable, and high-current and high-voltage fuses, as well as battery cable protectors; fuses, switches, relays, circuit breakers, and power distribution modules; and sensor products. This segment serves heavy-duty truck, construction, agriculture, material handling, and marine. The Industrial segment offers industrial fuses, protection relays, contactors, transformers, residual current devices, ground fault circuit interrupters, residual current monitors, arc fault detection devices, and temperature sensors for use in renewable energy and energy storage systems, electric vehicle infrastructure, HVAC systems, industrial safety, non-residential construction, MRO, mining, and factory automation. It sells its products through distributors, direct sales force, and manufacturers' representatives. Littelfuse, Inc. was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

About TDK

TDK Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in manufacture and sale of electronic components in Japan, Europe, China, Asia, the Americas, and internationally. The company operates through Passive Components, Sensor Application Products, Magnetic Application Products, Energy Application Products, and Other segments. The Passive Components segment offers ceramic capacitors, aluminum electrolytic capacitors, film capacitors, high-frequency components, piezoelectric materials, and circuit protection components, as well as inductive devices, including ferrite cores, coils, and transformers. The Sensor Application Products segment provides temperature and pressure, magnetic, and MEMS sensors. The Magnetic Application Products segment offers hard disk drives (HDD) heads, HDD suspension assemblies, and magnets. The Energy Application Products segment provides energy devices comprising rechargeable batteries, and power supplies. The Other segment provides mechatronics production equipment and camera module micro actuators for smartphones and other products. The company also engages in engages in insurance and real estate agency businesses. The company was formerly known as Tokyo Denki Kagaku Kogyo K.K. and changed its name to TDK Corporation in 1983. TDK Corporation was founded in 1935 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.