S&CO Inc. Buys Shares of 23,245 Franklin Resources, Inc. $BEN

S&CO Inc. purchased a new position in Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 23,245 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock, valued at approximately $773,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BEN. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Franklin Resources by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,882,860 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $259,988,000 after buying an additional 816,952 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Franklin Resources by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,122,937 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $241,837,000 after buying an additional 768,707 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Franklin Resources by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,069,495 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $192,774,000 after acquiring an additional 272,335 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Franklin Resources by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 7,083,168 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $169,217,000 after acquiring an additional 243,836 shares during the period. Finally, Azora Capital LP increased its position in Franklin Resources by 78.8% during the fourth quarter. Azora Capital LP now owns 5,796,575 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $138,480,000 after acquiring an additional 2,554,105 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 47.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Franklin Resources from $30.50 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Franklin Resources from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Franklin Resources from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Franklin Resources from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and set a $34.00 target price on shares of Franklin Resources in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.44.

Franklin Resources Price Performance

NYSE BEN opened at $33.86 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a 12 month low of $21.10 and a 12 month high of $36.28. The stock has a market cap of $17.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.03, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.55. The company’s 50 day moving average is $33.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $29.46.

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 31st. The closed-end fund reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.76 billion. Franklin Resources had a net margin of 8.72% and a return on equity of 11.55%. The company’s revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.49 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Franklin Resources, Inc. will post 2.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Franklin Resources Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 29th were paid a $0.33 dividend. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 29th. Franklin Resources’s dividend payout ratio is presently 89.80%.

Franklin Resources Company Profile

Franklin Resources, Inc, doing business as Franklin Templeton, is a global investment management organization that offers a wide range of asset management solutions to institutional and individual investors. The firm’s core focus is on delivering active portfolio management across equities, fixed income, multi-asset strategies and alternative investments. Franklin Templeton’s product lineup includes mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), closed-end funds, separately managed accounts and sub-advisory services designed to meet varying risk-return objectives and income needs.

Founded in 1947 by Rupert H.