LFUS · Technology(switchgear & switchboard apparatus) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-27
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Littelfuse Inc reported revenue of $2.4 billion in fiscal 2025, after growing 9.5% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin narrowed from 12.4% in 2016 to 1.6%, and it earned -23.1% on its invested capital in the latest year. Of the $3.3 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 71.7% went to acquisitions and 21.9% back into the business; the share count rose 9.2%. On the accounting screens, it passes 6 of 9 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 4.60 is in the safe zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; none of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 20252.4B+9.5% a year over 9 years
Operating margin1.6%gross margin 38.0%
Return on invested capital-23.1%2.9% on average over 5 years
Free cash flow after stock pay338.8M14.2% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA2.1×net debt 239.2M
Piotroski F-score6/9tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
01.0B2.0B3.0B
2016Revenue 1.1BOperating income 130.6M
2017Revenue 1.2BOperating income 218.5M
2018Revenue 1.7BOperating income 225.0M
2019Revenue 1.5BOperating income 192.8M
2020Revenue 1.4BOperating income 162.4M
2022Revenue 2.1BOperating income 385.6M
2022Revenue 2.5BOperating income 500.8M
2023Revenue 2.4BOperating income 360.9M
2024Revenue 2.2BOperating income 158.8M
2025Revenue 2.4BOperating income 37.5M
2016201720182019202020222022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
-1.7%
+10.5%
+9.5%
Operating income
-57.8%
-25.4%
-12.9%
Free cash flow per share
+5.3%
+12.4%
+10.7%
Dividend per share
+9.0%
+8.8%
+10.0%
Shares
-0.2%
+0.2%
+1.0%
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
-3.0%
Return on assets
-1.8%
Asset turnover
0.60×
Research & development
4.5% of revenue
Overheads (SG&A)
16.0% of revenue
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
-200.0M0200.0M400.0M
2016Net income 104.5MFree cash flow 133.9MAfter stock-based pay 121.9M
2017Net income 119.5MFree cash flow 203.2MAfter stock-based pay 186.9M
2018Net income 164.6MFree cash flow 257.1MAfter stock-based pay 229.6M
2019Net income 139.1MFree cash flow 183.4MAfter stock-based pay 164.4M
2020Net income 130.0MFree cash flow 201.8MAfter stock-based pay 183.7M
2022Net income 283.8MFree cash flow 282.8MAfter stock-based pay 263.2M
2022Net income 373.3MFree cash flow 315.4MAfter stock-based pay 291.8M
2023Net income 259.5MFree cash flow 371.2MAfter stock-based pay 347.3M
2024Net income 100.2MFree cash flow 291.7MAfter stock-based pay 265.7M
2025Net income -71.7MFree cash flow 366.1MAfter stock-based pay 338.8M
2016201720182019202020222022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2016–2025
3.3B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 22%729.6M
Acquisitions 72%2.4B
Dividends 15%498.0M
Share buybacks 8%254.3M
More than it generated: funded with cash or new debt -16%-537.3M
Over the same years it paid 213.4M in stock. The share count rose 9.2%. 40.9M of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$-5.00$0.00$5.00$10.00$15.00
2016Earnings per share $4.60Free cash flow per share $5.89Dividend per share $1.23
2017Earnings per share $5.21Free cash flow per share $8.86Dividend per share $1.39
2018Earnings per share $6.52Free cash flow per share $10.19Dividend per share $1.58
2019Earnings per share $5.60Free cash flow per share $7.39Dividend per share $1.80
2020Earnings per share $5.29Free cash flow per share $8.21Dividend per share $1.90
2022Earnings per share $11.38Free cash flow per share $11.34Dividend per share $1.99
2022Earnings per share $14.94Free cash flow per share $12.62Dividend per share $2.24
2023Earnings per share $10.34Free cash flow per share $14.79Dividend per share $2.48
2024Earnings per share $4.00Free cash flow per share $11.65Dividend per share $2.68
2025Earnings per share $-2.89Free cash flow per share $14.75Dividend per share $2.90
2016201720182019202020222022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
22.0M23.0M24.0M25.0M26.0M
2016Diluted shares 22.7M
2017Diluted shares 22.9M
2018Diluted shares 25.2M
2019Diluted shares 24.8M
2020Diluted shares 24.6M
2022Diluted shares 24.9M
2022Diluted shares 25.0M
2023Diluted shares 25.1M
2024Diluted shares 25.0M
2025Diluted shares 24.8M
2016201720182019202020222022202320242025
How strong is the balance sheet?
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt
-200.0M0200.0M400.0M600.0M
2016Net debt 179.0M
2017Net debt 65.9M
2018Net debt 205.0M
2019Net debt 148.0M
2020Net debt -491,000
2022Net debt 158.4M
2022Net debt 438.9M
2023Net debt 316.4M
2024Net debt 131.2M
2025Net debt 239.2M
2016201720182019202020222022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
2.1×
Interest coverage
1× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
2.69 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
106 days collects in 56d, stock 103d, pays in 52d
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
6of 9 tests passed
✕ProfitableReturn on assets above zerofailed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✕Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforefailed
✓Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)passed
✓Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fellpassed
✕More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforefailed
✓No new sharesShare count did not growpassed
✓Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year beforepassed
✓Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforepassed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
4.60safe zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.23 × 6.56+1.50
Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.42 × 3.26+1.38
Operating income ÷ assets 0.01 × 6.72+0.06
Equity ÷ liabilities 1.58 × 1.05+1.66
Where it misleads: buybacks. A company that returns so much cash that its equity turns small or negative sinks the last two ratios without being anywhere near bankruptcy. Banks and insurers do not fit the model at all.
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
-2.88below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 1.13+1.04
Gross margin slipping 0.95+0.50
Soft assets 1.05+0.42
Sales growth 1.09+0.97
Slower depreciation 1.03+0.12
Overheads vs sales 1.00-0.17
Profit not in cash -0.13-0.60
Leverage rising 1.00-0.33
Where it misleads: fast growth and acquisitions. Sales growth carries a heavy weight, so a company growing 50% a year scores like a suspect without having done anything. It is a screen from a 1999 study, not an accusation.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
None of the six cross-checks fires for the latest year: receivables and inventory move with revenue, profit turns into cash, investment keeps up with depreciation, the tax rate is ordinary and debt is moderate.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
With a free cash flow margin at or below zero in year ten, the business never generates cash for its owners and a DCF says nothing useful. Set a positive margin for year ten to see what it would take.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Every Form 4 filed in the last twelve months, read line by line: 6 filings by 6 people. Open-market purchases and sales are counted apart from awards, option exercises and shares withheld for taxes.
Bought on the open market—none in the period
Sold on the open market—none in the period
Under pre-arranged plans—of the sales followed a 10b5-1 plan set months earlier
A Form 4 says what happened, when, how many shares and at what price. It does not say why: a sale can be diversification, a tax bill or a plan fixed months earlier, and an award is pay, not a purchase. Nothing here is a reason to buy or sell anything.
Which large funds report holding it
From the Form 13F of the 28 institutions followed on this site, as of the end of their last reported quarter. A 13F is filed up to 45 days later and shows only long positions in US-listed shares.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.