UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC Purchases 166,681 Shares of Franklin Resources, Inc. $BEN

UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its holdings in Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) by 8.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,077,880 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock after buying an additional 166,681 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC owned approximately 0.40% of Franklin Resources worth $39,999,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Franklin Resources by 2.2% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,985,065 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $230,713,000 after purchasing an additional 263,619 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Franklin Resources by 20.3% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,223,369 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $139,040,000 after acquiring an additional 1,220,419 shares during the last quarter. Evergreen Quality Fund GP Ltd. lifted its holdings in Franklin Resources by 99.1% during the 1st quarter. Evergreen Quality Fund GP Ltd. now owns 5,237,650 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $100,825,000 after buying an additional 2,607,460 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its holdings in Franklin Resources by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 3,778,910 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $72,009,000 after buying an additional 26,584 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 173.7% in the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,531,700 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $71,658,000 after buying an additional 2,241,500 shares during the last quarter. 47.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Franklin Resources from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $29.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Franklin Resources from $21.50 to $26.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Franklin Resources in a report on Monday, June 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Franklin Resources from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Franklin Resources from $22.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Franklin Resources has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $23.58.

Franklin Resources Price Performance

Shares of BEN stock opened at $24.36 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $24.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.55 and a quick ratio of 1.55. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a one year low of $16.25 and a one year high of $26.08. The firm has a market cap of $12.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.51.

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The closed-end fund reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.38 billion. Franklin Resources had a return on equity of 8.76% and a net margin of 3.73%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Franklin Resources, Inc. will post 2.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Franklin Resources Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 30th will be given a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.3%. Franklin Resources’s dividend payout ratio is 250.98%.

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.