Franklin Electric (FELE) & The Competition Critical Comparison

Franklin Electric (NASDAQ:FELE) is one of 23 publicly-traded companies in the “MACH – ELECTRICAL” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Franklin Electric to related companies based on the strength of its valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability and dividends.

Dividends

Franklin Electric pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Franklin Electric pays out 34.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “MACH – ELECTRICAL” companies pay a dividend yield of 0.7% and pay out 18.9% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Franklin Electric has raised its dividend for 33 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Franklin Electric and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Franklin Electric	0	3	0	0	2.00
Franklin Electric Competitors	303	1209	1634	85	2.46

Franklin Electric presently has a consensus price target of $106.00, indicating a potential upside of 17.29%. As a group, “MACH – ELECTRICAL” companies have a potential downside of 2.17%. Given Franklin Electric’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Franklin Electric is more favorable than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares Franklin Electric and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Franklin Electric	6.90%	14.52%	9.59%
Franklin Electric Competitors	-1,637.81%	-1.51%	-4.83%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

80.0% of Franklin Electric shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 59.8% of shares of all “MACH – ELECTRICAL” companies are held by institutional investors. 2.7% of Franklin Electric shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.5% of shares of all “MACH – ELECTRICAL” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Franklin Electric has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Franklin Electric’s peers have a beta of 1.31, suggesting that their average share price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Franklin Electric and its peers revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Franklin Electric	$2.13 billion	$147.09 million	28.07
Franklin Electric Competitors	$8.33 billion	$806.58 million	18.04

Franklin Electric’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Franklin Electric. Franklin Electric is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Franklin Electric peers beat Franklin Electric on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About Franklin Electric

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. 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.