One-glance verdict
Overvalued
$82.93 our estimate vs market $103.96
Wall Street consensus: $118.50 (42.9% higher than our fair-value estimate)
25% above our estimate, beyond the bull case
Fundamentals snapshot
Franklin Electric Co., Inc.
FELE · NMS · Industrials · Specialty Industrial Machinery
Current price
$103.96
52-week range
$89.54 - $115.82
Market cap
$4.60B
Balance sheet
Healthy
25.34x Strong cushion
Net debt $211.04M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
1 Risk
3 rewards · 1 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 2.1% last year.
- Reward Returns 11.8% on equity, ahead of 16% of its peers.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
- Risk Stock trades 21.3% above its 5-year average P/E.
What this company does
Franklin Electric Co., Inc.
Franklin Electric makes and sells the essential systems that pump water and fuel for customers around the world, from farms and homes to gas stations. The company earns most of its money selling water systems, which provide the critical equipment needed for accessing groundwater or managing wastewater. Because these products are necessary for daily life, the business can often see steady demand and predictable profit margins (the portion of each dollar in sales the company keeps as profit).
How the company got here
Franklin Electric was founded in 1944 in Bluffton, Indiana, by E.J. Schaefer and T.W. Kehoe. They named the company after Benjamin Franklin, whom they considered America's first electrical engineer. The company started as a small motor manufacturer and has since grown into a global company that makes and sells systems for moving water and fuel. A key turning point was the development of the first reliable submersible electric motor for water wells, which established the company's core business. Over the years, it has expanded by creating new products and acquiring other companies, evolving from just making parts to providing complete systems.
What it actually does
Franklin Electric makes and sells the systems that move and manage water and fuel. Think of the specialized pumps and motors needed to get water from an underground well to a house or a farm's irrigation system. They also produce the equipment that gas stations use to pump fuel from their underground storage tanks into your car. The company provides everything from the submersible pumps and motors to the electronic controls and monitoring devices that ensure these systems work safely and efficiently.
Water Systems
This is the company's largest business segment, making up about 60% of its sales. It creates all the necessary components to move water, including motors, pumps, and water treatment systems for homes, farms, and city infrastructure. For example, if a rural home needs to draw water from a well, this division makes the submersible pump and motor that sits deep underground to push the water to the surface. Customers are typically wholesale distributors who then sell to the contractors that install these systems.
Energy Systems
This segment, previously called Fueling Systems, focuses on equipment for the energy industry. Its main products are the pumps, pipes, and monitoring systems used at gas stations to safely move fuel from underground tanks to the dispenser. This part of the business serves oil companies and industrial equipment distributors. It also provides monitoring devices for power utilities and data centers to ensure reliable electricity.
Distribution
This part of the company owns a network of distributors, known as the Headwater Companies. Instead of just manufacturing products, this segment sells them directly to the professional contractors who install them, primarily in the U.S. groundwater market. This gives Franklin Electric a closer relationship with its end customers and allows it to sell both its own products and those from other manufacturers.
What management is betting on now
The company's leadership is focused on growing the business in several key ways. They aim to increase sales of their existing products, a strategy known as organic growth (growth a company achieves on its own, without buying other companies). They are also expanding beyond their traditional groundwater business into related areas like wastewater and water pressure systems to capture more of the overall water market. Finally, management continues to look for opportunities to acquire other companies to enter new markets or add new technologies.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q2
$26.10M
FY2024 Q3
$106.63M
FY2024 Q4
$97.48M
FY2025 Q1
$-26.30M
FY2025 Q2
$39.89M
FY2025 Q3
$91.28M
FY2025 Q4
$88.67M
FY2026 Q1
$-50.35M
Revenue
$500.44M
Net income
$34.33M
Diluted EPS
0.77
Operating cash flow
$-40.88M
Free cash flow
$-50.35M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$506.86M
Net income
$39.25M
Diluted EPS
0.87
Operating cash flow
$104.19M
Free cash flow
$88.67M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$581.71M
Net income
$16.74M
Diluted EPS
0.37
Operating cash flow
$102.69M
Free cash flow
$91.28M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$587.43M
Net income
$60.14M
Diluted EPS
1.31
Operating cash flow
$51.47M
Free cash flow
$39.89M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$455.25M
Net income
$30.96M
Diluted EPS
0.67
Operating cash flow
$-19.47M
Free cash flow
$-26.30M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$485.75M
Net income
$33.66M
Diluted EPS
0.73
Operating cash flow
$110.27M
Free cash flow
$97.48M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$531.44M
Net income
$54.60M
Diluted EPS
1.17
Operating cash flow
$116.08M
Free cash flow
$106.63M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$543.26M
Net income
$59.10M
Diluted EPS
1.26
Operating cash flow
$36.37M
Free cash flow
$26.10M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $82.93 vs current price $103.96
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $118.50 (42.9% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $82.93 a share — about 20.2% below today's price of $103.96, so the stock currently looks expensive (overvalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Healthy
Net debt $211.0M. Interest coverage 25.3x.
Net debt
$211.04M
Interest coverage
25.34x
Franklin Electric Co., Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 25.3 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here.
Healthy
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
FELE
BASELINE
Franklin Electric Co., Inc.
Total debt $308.32M Interest coverage 25.34x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $3.06B Interest coverage 45.72x +80% vs FELE Carries about 1.8x more debt cushion than FELE.
Total debt $1.76B Interest coverage 13.41x -47% vs FELE Carries about 1.9x less debt cushion than FELE.
Total debt $1.89B Interest coverage 11.18x -56% vs FELE Carries about 2.3x less debt cushion than FELE.
Total debt $305.00M Interest coverage 43.69x +72% vs FELE Carries about 1.7x more debt cushion than FELE.
Total debt $52.21M Interest coverage 211.11x +733% vs FELE Carries about 8.3x more debt cushion than FELE.
What you should know
The case for and against FELE
3 Rewards
1 Risk
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 2.1% last year.
-
Returns 11.8% on equity, ahead of 16% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
Risks
-
Stock trades 21.3% above its 5-year average P/E.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
29.87x
Forward P/E
20.14x
P/B
3.43x
P/S
2.08x
EV/EBITDA
13.56x
PEG ratio
1.91x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
35.5%
Operating margin
15.4%
Net margin
7.1%
ROE
11.8%
ROA
8.6%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.22x
Current ratio
2.41x
Quick ratio
0.99x
Total debt
$308.32M
Total cash
$97.28M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$2.18B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
6.4%
EPS TTM
3.48
EPS 5Y CAGR
-6.7%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$217.47M
Free CF TTM
$193.54M
FCF margin
8.9%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
1.1%
Payout ratio
31.3%
Last ex-div date
2026-08-06