Critical Comparison: Franklin Electric (FELE) and Its Peers

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

Volatility & Risk

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

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%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations 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 currently has a consensus target price of $106.00, suggesting a potential upside of 16.02%. As a group, “MACH – ELECTRICAL” companies have a potential downside of 3.07%. Given Franklin Electric’s higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Franklin Electric is more favorable than its peers.

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.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Franklin Electric	$2.13 billion	$147.09 million	28.37
Franklin Electric Competitors	$8.33 billion	$806.58 million	18.27

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.

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, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

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

Franklin Electric Company 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. 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.