Franklin Resources, Inc. $BEN Shares Purchased by Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey

Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey increased its holdings in shares of Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) by 155.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 117,151 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock after buying an additional 71,207 shares during the period. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey’s holdings in Franklin Resources were worth $2,794,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. 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 in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Franklin Resources by 1.1% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 8,677,417 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $206,956,000 after purchasing an additional 97,708 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Franklin Resources by 20.3% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,223,369 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $139,040,000 after buying an additional 1,220,419 shares during the last quarter. Evergreen Quality Fund GP Ltd. raised its stake in Franklin Resources by 99.1% in the first 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. Finally, 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 worth $72,009,000 after buying an additional 26,584 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 47.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on BEN shares. Barclays dropped their price objective on Franklin Resources from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. 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. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Franklin Resources from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Franklin Resources in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Franklin Resources from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Franklin Resources currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $23.91.

Franklin Resources Stock Performance

Shares of BEN stock opened at $21.45 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $23.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $23.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.17 billion, a PE ratio of 42.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.49. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a 52-week low of $16.25 and a 52-week high of $26.08.

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The closed-end fund reported $0.67 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $2.17 billion. Franklin Resources had a return on equity of 8.76% and a net margin of 3.73%.The company’s revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.59 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Franklin Resources, Inc. will post 2.16 EPS for the current year.

Franklin Resources Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 30th were given a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.0%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 30th. Franklin Resources’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 140.66%.

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.