Franklin Electric (FELE) versus Its Peers Head to Head Analysis

Franklin Electric (NASDAQ:FELE) is one of 436 public companies in the “Machinery” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Franklin Electric to related companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Franklin Electric and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Franklin Electric	0	2	1	1	2.75
Franklin Electric Competitors	4207	14715	18241	808	2.41

Franklin Electric presently has a consensus price target of $132.50, indicating a potential upside of 37.19%. As a group, “Machinery” companies have a potential upside of 31.25%. Given Franklin Electric’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Franklin Electric is more favorable than its competitors.

Dividends

Franklin Electric pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Franklin Electric pays out 25.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Machinery” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.8% and pay out 24.5% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Franklin Electric has raised its dividend for 33 consecutive years. Franklin Electric lags its competitors as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Risk & Volatility

Franklin Electric has a beta of 1.02, meaning that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Franklin Electric’s competitors have a beta of 5.12, meaning that their average stock price is 412% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Franklin Electric	$2.13 billion	$147.09 million	21.70
Franklin Electric Competitors	$4.65 billion	$364.05 million	5.81

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Franklin Electric	8.83%	15.45%	9.78%
Franklin Electric Competitors	-1,044.43%	-14.99%	0.58%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

80.0% of Franklin Electric shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.8% of shares of all “Machinery” companies are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of Franklin Electric shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.3% of shares of all “Machinery” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Franklin Electric beats its competitors 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.