Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Buys 478,444 Shares of Franklin Resources, Inc. $BEN

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) by 1,566.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 508,981 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock after buying an additional 478,444 shares during the quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership owned about 0.10% of Franklin Resources worth $12,139,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of BEN. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Franklin Resources by 2.2% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,985,065 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $230,713,000 after acquiring an additional 263,619 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Franklin Resources by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 8,677,417 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $206,956,000 after purchasing an additional 97,708 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in 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 purchasing an additional 1,220,419 shares during the period. Evergreen Quality Fund GP Ltd. raised its position in Franklin Resources by 99.1% in the 1st quarter. Evergreen Quality Fund GP Ltd. now owns 5,237,650 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $100,825,000 after purchasing an additional 2,607,460 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi lifted its stake in Franklin Resources by 0.7% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 3,778,910 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $72,009,000 after purchasing an additional 26,584 shares during the last quarter. 47.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on BEN shares. Bank of America upped their target price on Franklin Resources from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on Franklin Resources in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $26.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Franklin Resources from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Franklin Resources from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Franklin Resources from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $23.91.

Franklin Resources Trading Down 1.2%

NYSE BEN opened at $23.12 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $23.56. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a one year low of $16.25 and a one year high of $26.08. The company has a market capitalization of $12.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 7th. The closed-end fund reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.17 billion. Franklin Resources had a net margin of 5.98% and a return on equity of 9.12%. Franklin Resources’s revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.59 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Franklin Resources, Inc. will post 2.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.