Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Sells 639 Shares of Franklin Electric Co., Inc. (NASDAQ:FELE)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund trimmed its position in Franklin Electric Co., Inc. (NASDAQ:FELE) by 2.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,409 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 639 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Franklin Electric were worth $2,166,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Franklin Electric by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,656,427 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $415,493,000 after buying an additional 17,092 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in Franklin Electric by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,961,273 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $189,557,000 after acquiring an additional 5,915 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Franklin Electric by 6.2% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 615,008 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $54,877,000 after purchasing an additional 36,114 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Franklin Electric by 0.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 512,762 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $45,754,000 after buying an additional 3,433 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its stake in Franklin Electric by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 505,303 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $48,838,000 after acquiring an additional 6,662 shares during the last quarter. 79.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Franklin Electric

In other news, CEO Gregg C. Sengstack sold 10,366 shares of Franklin Electric stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.96, for a total value of $1,036,185.36. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 154,993 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,493,100.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 2.72% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on FELE. StockNews.com lowered Franklin Electric from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 14th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Franklin Electric from $91.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Franklin Electric from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $110.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned 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 a consensus target price of $100.00.

Franklin Electric Price Performance

Shares of FELE stock opened at $102.54 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 2.97. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $102.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $95.53. Franklin Electric Co., Inc. has a 52-week low of $82.61 and a 52-week high of $107.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.96.

Franklin Electric (NASDAQ:FELE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The industrial products company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $472.97 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $490.47 million. Franklin Electric had a return on equity of 16.67% and a net margin of 9.36%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Franklin Electric Co., Inc. will post 4.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Franklin Electric Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 2nd will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 1st. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. Franklin Electric’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.33%.

Franklin Electric Profile

Franklin Electric Co, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and distributes water and fuel pumping systems worldwide. The company operates through Water Systems, Fueling Systems, and Distribution segments. The Water Systems segment offers submersible motors, drives, pumps, electronic controls, water treatment systems, monitoring devices, and related parts and equipment.