Yousif Capital Management LLC Buys 2,338 Shares of Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN)

Yousif Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 290,588 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,338 shares during the quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Franklin Resources were worth $8,657,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its stake in shares of Franklin Resources by 10.8% in the 4th quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 1,491,598 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $44,435,000 after acquiring an additional 144,843 shares in the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 53.6% in the fourth quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 1,188,199 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $35,396,000 after purchasing an additional 414,826 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 13.0% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 966,212 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $23,749,000 after purchasing an additional 110,806 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board raised its holdings in Franklin Resources by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 14,873 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $366,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in Franklin Resources by 12.1% in the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 981,103 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $24,116,000 after acquiring an additional 106,129 shares during the period. 47.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on BEN shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised Franklin Resources from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $24.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. StockNews.com downgraded Franklin Resources from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Franklin Resources from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Franklin Resources from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Franklin Resources in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $32.00 target price for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.50.

Franklin Resources Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BEN opened at $25.35 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.34, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.33. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a one year low of $21.88 and a one year high of $30.32.

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

Franklin Resources Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.89%. Franklin Resources’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.