Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $1.91 Million in Franklin Electric Co., Inc. (NASDAQ:FELE)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of Franklin Electric Co., Inc. (NASDAQ:FELE) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 19,800 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,914,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Franklin Electric by 23.2% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 24,332 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,171,000 after buying an additional 4,582 shares during the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Franklin Electric by 37.7% during the 4th quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 26,778 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,588,000 after buying an additional 7,325 shares during the last quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Franklin Electric during the 3rd quarter worth $767,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings 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 last quarter. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Franklin Electric by 12.5% during the 3rd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 3,521 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $314,000 after buying an additional 392 shares during the last quarter. 79.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Franklin Electric Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Franklin Electric stock opened at $100.51 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $101.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $95.08. The company has a current ratio of 2.97, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Franklin Electric Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $82.61 and a twelve month high of $107.89. The stock has a market cap of $4.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.96.

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

Franklin Electric Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 1st were given a $0.25 dividend. This is a boost from Franklin Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, January 31st. Franklin Electric’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Franklin Electric

In other Franklin Electric news, CEO Gregg C. Sengstack sold 10,366 shares of the company’s 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 directly owns 154,993 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,493,100.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 2.72% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on FELE shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Franklin Electric from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 14th. Northcoast Research raised shares of Franklin Electric from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $110.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Franklin Electric from $91.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $100.00.

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.