Franklin Electric (NASDAQ:FELE) & Murata Manufacturing (OTCMKTS:MRAAY) Head-To-Head Survey

Murata Manufacturing (OTCMKTS:MRAAY) and Franklin Electric (NASDAQ:FELE) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Murata Manufacturing and Franklin Electric’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Murata Manufacturing	13.40%	9.16%	7.84%
Franklin Electric	6.71%	14.24%	9.46%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Murata Manufacturing and Franklin Electric, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Murata Manufacturing	0	0	0	0	0.00
Franklin Electric	0	2	0	0	2.00

Franklin Electric has a consensus price target of $112.00, suggesting a potential upside of 15.08%. Given Franklin Electric’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Franklin Electric is more favorable than Murata Manufacturing.

Dividends

Murata Manufacturing pays an annual dividend of $0.11 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Franklin Electric pays an annual dividend of $1.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Murata Manufacturing pays out 25.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Franklin Electric pays out 34.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Franklin Electric has raised its dividend for 33 consecutive years. Franklin Electric is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Risk & Volatility

Murata Manufacturing has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Franklin Electric has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

0.8% of Murata Manufacturing shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.0% of Franklin Electric shares are held by institutional investors. 2.7% of Franklin Electric shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Murata Manufacturing and Franklin Electric”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Murata Manufacturing	$11.45 billion	3.34	$1.54 billion	$0.43	23.91
Franklin Electric	$2.02 billion	2.14	$180.31 million	$3.07	31.70

Murata Manufacturing has higher revenue and earnings than Franklin Electric. Murata Manufacturing is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Franklin Electric, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Franklin Electric beats Murata Manufacturing on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Murata Manufacturing

Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. designs, manufactures, and sells ceramic-based passive electronic components and solutions in Japan and internationally. The company offers capacitors, inductors, noise suppression products/EMI suppression filters/ESD protection devices, resistors, thermistors, sensors, timing devices, quartz devices, sound components, power products, batteries, micro mechatronics, RFID product, baluns, couplers, filters, phase shifters, RF switches, front-end modules, SAW components, connectors, antennas, connectivity modules, wireless connectivity platforms, ionizers/active oxygen modules, and transformers. It also offers Femtet, a CAE software that solves various engineering challenges; and provides silver oxide battery. In addition, the company provides connectivity, Wifi sensing, IOT, AI, and RFID solutions. Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. offers its products for use in communications equipment, mobility, enterprise system, industrial, healthcare, medical, personal electronics applications, and other sectors. The company was founded in 1944 and is headquartered in Nagaokakyo, Japan.

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. 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.