PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Reduces Holdings in Franklin Electric Co., Inc. (NASDAQ:FELE)

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. reduced its stake in Franklin Electric Co., Inc. (NASDAQ:FELE) by 30.6% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 22,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 9,910 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in Franklin Electric were worth $2,358,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. First Merchants Corp purchased a new position in shares of Franklin Electric in the second quarter worth $19,054,000. F M Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Franklin Electric in the 2nd quarter valued at $9,158,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Franklin Electric by 116.5% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 165,601 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $15,951,000 after acquiring an additional 89,128 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its position in Franklin Electric by 19.6% during the 3rd 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. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its holdings 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 valued at $6,206,000 after purchasing an additional 49,391 shares during the period. 79.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Franklin Electric Trading Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ FELE opened at $110.40 on Tuesday. Franklin Electric Co., Inc. has a 1 year low of $87.65 and a 1 year high of $111.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The company has a market capitalization of $5.04 billion, a PE ratio of 27.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a fifty day moving average of $103.86 and a 200 day moving average of $100.71.

Franklin Electric (NASDAQ:FELE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $1.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.27 by ($0.10). Franklin Electric had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 15.03%. The company had revenue of $531.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $551.08 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Franklin Electric Co., Inc. will post 3.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Franklin Electric Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 7th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 7th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.91%. Franklin Electric’s payout ratio is 25.32%.

Insider Activity

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. Insiders own 2.72% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Franklin Electric from $107.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th.

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.