Mather Group LLC. Increases Stock Holdings in Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN)

Mather Group LLC. increased its position in Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 483,748 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,151 shares during the quarter. Mather Group LLC.’s holdings in Franklin Resources were worth $14,411,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Franklin Resources by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,563,774 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $161,338,000 after purchasing an additional 415,512 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,053,751 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $75,061,000 after acquiring an additional 202,288 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Franklin Resources by 0.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,840,863 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $45,248,000 after purchasing an additional 14,896 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 138.0% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,750,779 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $43,034,000 after buying an additional 1,015,225 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its stake in Franklin Resources by 10.8% in the fourth 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. 47.56% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on BEN. StockNews.com cut shares of Franklin Resources from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on Franklin Resources from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Franklin Resources from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Franklin Resources from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Franklin Resources from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $24.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $27.50.

Franklin Resources Trading Down 4.3 %

Shares of BEN stock traded down $1.07 during trading on Monday, hitting $23.92. 1,963,648 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,577,206. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.40. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a 52-week low of $21.88 and a 52-week high of $30.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $26.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.37.

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The closed-end fund reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.07. Franklin Resources had a return on equity of 11.15% and a net margin of 12.30%. The business had revenue of $1.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.51 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.51 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Franklin Resources, Inc. will post 2.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Franklin Resources Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.18%. Franklin Resources’s payout ratio is currently 65.26%.

Franklin Resources 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.