Wright Investors Service Inc. Cuts Stake in Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN)

Wright Investors Service Inc. reduced its position in Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) by 15.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 61,318 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock after selling 11,516 shares during the quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc.’s holdings in Franklin Resources were worth $1,827,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Franklin Resources during the first quarter valued at $55,460,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Franklin Resources by 937.6% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,576,101 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $2,781,000 after buying an additional 1,424,200 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in shares of Franklin Resources by 202.7% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,126,650 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $59,377,000 after buying an additional 1,424,044 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Franklin Resources by 4.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,072,606 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $951,307,000 after buying an additional 1,390,583 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Franklin Resources during the fourth quarter valued at $35,423,000. 47.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on BEN shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of Franklin Resources from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Franklin Resources from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $24.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Franklin Resources from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Franklin Resources from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Franklin Resources from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have given a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Franklin Resources presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.50.

Franklin Resources Price Performance

Shares of Franklin Resources stock traded up $0.33 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $25.14. The stock had a trading volume of 1,703,095 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,402,134. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $27.14 and its 200 day moving average is $26.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.24 billion, a PE ratio of 13.06, a PEG ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.40. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a twelve month low of $21.88 and a twelve month high of $30.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86.

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 29th. The closed-end fund reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.99 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. Franklin Resources had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 11.15%. The company’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.51 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Franklin Resources, Inc. will post 2.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Franklin Resources Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.93%. Franklin Resources’s dividend payout ratio is currently 65.26%.

Franklin Resources Company Profile

Franklin Resources, Inc is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides its services to individuals, institutions, pension plans, trusts, and partnerships. It launches equity, fixed income, balanced, and multi-asset mutual funds through its subsidiaries.