SG Americas Securities LLC Buys 207,734 Shares of Franklin Resources, Inc. $BEN

SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) by 824.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 232,917 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock after buying an additional 207,734 shares during the quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Franklin Resources were worth $5,387,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Franklin Resources by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 12,287 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $284,000 after acquiring an additional 531 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in Franklin Resources by 7.7% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 9,354 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $216,000 after purchasing an additional 671 shares during the last quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. grew its position in Franklin Resources by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 20,968 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $500,000 after purchasing an additional 706 shares in the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Franklin Resources by 8.3% in the 2nd quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 9,351 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $223,000 after buying an additional 718 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in Franklin Resources by 32.2% in the 2nd quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 3,284 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $78,000 after buying an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. 47.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BEN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Franklin Resources in a report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Franklin Resources from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 10th. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Franklin Resources from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Franklin Resources in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Franklin Resources from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, December 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $24.09.

Franklin Resources Stock Performance

NYSE:BEN opened at $25.66 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $13.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.44. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $23.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $23.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.40. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a 1 year low of $16.25 and a 1 year high of $26.08.

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The closed-end fund reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.10. Franklin Resources had a return on equity of 9.12% and a net margin of 5.98%.The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.17 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.59 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Franklin Resources, Inc. will post 2.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Franklin Resources Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 9th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 30th were paid a $0.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 30th. This is a positive change from Franklin Resources’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.1%. Franklin Resources’s dividend payout ratio is 145.05%.

About Franklin Resources

Franklin Resources, Inc, doing business as Franklin Templeton, is a global investment management organization that offers a wide range of asset management solutions to institutional and individual investors. The firm’s core focus is on delivering active portfolio management across equities, fixed income, multi-asset strategies and alternative investments. Franklin Templeton’s product lineup includes mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), closed-end funds, separately managed accounts and sub-advisory services designed to meet varying risk-return objectives and income needs.

Founded in 1947 by Rupert H.