Franklin Resources, Inc. $BEN Shares Purchased by Truist Financial Corp

Truist Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) by 14.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,651 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,026 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp’s holdings in Franklin Resources were worth $373,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Franklin Resources by 2.2% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,985,065 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $230,713,000 after acquiring an additional 263,619 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Franklin Resources by 20.3% during the first 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 period. Evergreen Quality Fund GP Ltd. grew its holdings in Franklin Resources by 99.1% during the first quarter. Evergreen Quality Fund GP Ltd. now owns 5,237,650 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $100,825,000 after acquiring an additional 2,607,460 shares during the period. Amundi grew its holdings in Franklin Resources by 0.7% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 3,778,910 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $72,009,000 after acquiring an additional 26,584 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Franklin Resources by 9.9% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,392,081 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $65,298,000 after acquiring an additional 305,736 shares during the period. 47.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on BEN shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Franklin Resources in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on Franklin Resources from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Franklin Resources from $22.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Zacks Research lowered Franklin Resources from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Franklin Resources from $21.50 to $26.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $24.08.

Franklin Resources Stock Performance

NYSE BEN opened at $22.10 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $11.47 billion, a PE ratio of 43.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.50. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $24.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.64. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a 1-year low of $16.25 and a 1-year high of $26.08. 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 (NYSE:BEN) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The closed-end fund reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.06 billion for 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 quarterly revenue was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Franklin Resources, Inc. will post 2.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Franklin Resources Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 30th were given a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.8%. Franklin Resources’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 250.98%.

About Franklin Resources

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.