Franklin Electric Co., Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and distributes water and fuel pumping systems worldwide. It operates through three segments: Water Systems, Fueling Systems, and Distribution. The Water Systems segment offers submersible motors, pumps, drives, electronic controls, water treatment systems, monitoring devices, and related parts and equipment. Its motors and pumps are used principally for pumping clean water and wastewater in various residential, agricultural, municipal, and industrial applications; and manufactures electronic drives and controls that are used in motors for controlling functionality, as well as provides protection from various hazards, such as electrical surges, over-heating, and dry wells or tanks. The Fueling Systems segment provides pumps, pipes, sumps, fittings, vapor recovery components, electronic controls, monitoring devices, and related parts and equipment primarily for use in fueling system applications. This segment serves other energy markets, such as power reliability systems, as well as includes electronic devices for online monitoring of the power utility, hydroelectric, and telecommunication and data center infrastructure. The Distribution segment sells to and provides presale support and specifications to the installing contractors. It sells products produced by the Water Systems segment. The company sells its products to wholesale and retail distributors, specialty distributors, original equipment manufacturers, industrial and petroleum equipment distributors, and oil and utility companies through its employee sales force and independent manufacturing representatives. Franklin Electric Co., Inc. was founded in 1944 and is headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Franklin Electric Price Performance
Shares of Franklin Electric stock traded down $0.17 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $92.12. 182,844 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 193,433. Franklin Electric has a 1 year low of $68.27 and a 1 year high of $96.95. The company has a market capitalization of $4.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.76 and a beta of 1.07. The business has a fifty day moving average of $77.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $79.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.
Franklin Electric (NASDAQ:FELE - Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 26th. The industrial products company reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.20. Franklin Electric had a net margin of 9.29% and a return on equity of 17.82%. The business had revenue of $551.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $528.67 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.83 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 26.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Franklin Electric will post 4.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Franklin Electric Announces Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 4th will be issued a $0.195 dividend. This represents a $0.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 3rd. Franklin Electric's dividend payout ratio is currently 20.97%.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Franklin Electric from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 27th. Northcoast Research began coverage on shares of Franklin Electric in a report on Friday, July 15th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $82.00 price objective on the stock. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Franklin Electric from $75.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 27th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Franklin Electric from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, July 30th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Franklin Electric to $80.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $85.75.
Insider Activity at Franklin Electric
In related news, VP Paul Chhabra sold 7,079 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.25, for a total value of $532,694.75. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 10,911 shares of the company's stock, valued at $821,052.75. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Franklin Electric news, CEO Gregg C. Sengstack sold 16,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.62, for a total transaction of $1,401,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 164,997 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,457,037.14. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Paul Chhabra sold 7,079 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.25, for a total transaction of $532,694.75. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,911 shares in the company, valued at approximately $821,052.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 56,538 shares of company stock valued at $4,510,417. 3.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
