Verition Fund Management LLC Buys New Stake in Franklin Electric Co., Inc. (NASDAQ:FELE)

Verition Fund Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Franklin Electric Co., Inc. (NASDAQ:FELE) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 2,233 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $234,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. First Merchants Corp acquired a new position in Franklin Electric during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $19,054,000. F M Investments LLC acquired a new position in Franklin Electric during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $9,158,000. KBC Group NV increased its stake in shares of Franklin Electric by 19.6% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 387,058 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $40,571,000 after acquiring an additional 63,436 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its stake in shares of Franklin Electric by 328.4% in the second quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 64,431 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $6,206,000 after acquiring an additional 49,391 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Franklin Electric by 2.0% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,030,238 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $212,810,000 after acquiring an additional 40,248 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.98% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Gregg C. Sengstack sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.22, for a total transaction of $150,330.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $905,187.04. This represents a 14.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.72% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Franklin Electric from $107.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th.

Franklin Electric Stock Down 0.8 %

NASDAQ:FELE opened at $105.11 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.61, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.98. Franklin Electric Co., Inc. has a 1-year low of $91.45 and a 1-year high of $111.94. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $105.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $101.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 1.06.

Franklin Electric (NASDAQ:FELE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $1.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.27 by ($0.10). Franklin Electric had a return on equity of 15.03% and a net margin of 9.22%. The firm had revenue of $531.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $551.08 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.23 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Franklin Electric Co., Inc. will post 3.81 EPS for the current year.

Franklin Electric Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 7th. Franklin Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.32%.

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.