Franklin Electric Co., Inc. (NASDAQ:FELE) Plans $0.25 Quarterly Dividend

Franklin Electric Co., Inc. (NASDAQ:FELE) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, April 22nd, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Thursday, May 2nd will be given a dividend of 0.25 per share by the industrial products company on Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 1st.

Franklin Electric has increased its dividend by an average of 13.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 32 consecutive years. Franklin Electric has a payout ratio of 21.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Franklin Electric to earn $4.71 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 21.2%.

Franklin Electric Price Performance

FELE opened at $102.05 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $102.00 and a 200 day moving average of $95.33. Franklin Electric has a 52-week low of $82.61 and a 52-week high of $107.89. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 2.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market cap of $4.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.83, a PEG ratio of 1.96 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 (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by ($0.02). Franklin Electric had a net margin of 9.36% and a return on equity of 16.67%. The business had revenue of $472.97 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $490.47 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. Franklin Electric’s revenue was down 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Franklin Electric will post 4.32 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Franklin Electric

In other Franklin Electric news, CEO Gregg C. Sengstack sold 10,366 shares of Franklin Electric stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.96, for a total transaction of $1,036,185.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 154,993 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,493,100.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.72% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on FELE shares. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Franklin Electric from $91.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Northcoast Research raised Franklin Electric from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $110.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Franklin Electric from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Franklin Electric presently has a consensus 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.