Arizona State Retirement System Has $1.06 Million Stock Holdings in Franklin Electric Co., Inc. (NASDAQ:FELE)

Arizona State Retirement System trimmed its stake in Franklin Electric Co., Inc. (NASDAQ:FELE) by 1.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,992 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 187 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Franklin Electric were worth $1,062,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Franklin Electric in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Franklin Electric in the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Franklin Electric in the third quarter valued at $37,000. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. bought a new position in shares of Franklin Electric in the first quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Franklin Electric in the fourth quarter valued at $55,000. 79.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FELE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Franklin Electric from $91.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Northcoast Research raised shares of Franklin Electric from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $110.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Franklin Electric from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $100.00.

Insider Transactions at Franklin Electric

In other news, CEO Gregg C. Sengstack sold 10,366 shares of Franklin Electric stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 154,993 shares in the company, valued at $15,493,100.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.72% of the company’s stock.

Franklin Electric Stock Performance

Shares of FELE stock opened at $100.39 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $4.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.96. 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 firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $101.58 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $94.85. Franklin Electric Co., Inc. has a 52 week low of $82.61 and a 52 week high of $107.89.

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

Franklin Electric Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 1st were paid a $0.25 dividend. This is an increase from Franklin Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, January 31st. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.00%. Franklin Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.