Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Purchases 12,052 Shares of Franklin Resources, Inc. $BEN

Key Points

• Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Franklin Resources, Inc. by 40.9%, owning 41,489 shares valued at $812,000.
• Other institutional investors, including Principal Financial Group and Mirae Asset Global Investments, also raised their stakes in Franklin Resources during the first quarter, reflecting a total hedge fund ownership of 47.56%.
• Despite a solid EPS report for the last quarter, which beat estimates, Franklin Resources has faced a mixed outlook from analysts with three Buy ratings and several Hold and Sell ratings, indicating cautious sentiment.

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN - Free Report) by 40.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 41,489 shares of the closed-end fund's stock after acquiring an additional 12,052 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC's holdings in Franklin Resources were worth $812,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,985,065 shares of the closed-end fund's stock valued at $230,713,000 after purchasing an additional 263,619 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its position in Franklin Resources by 19.6% during the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 9,403,875 shares of the closed-end fund's stock valued at $190,805,000 after buying an additional 1,542,478 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Franklin Resources by 20.3% during 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 position 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 worth $100,825,000 after acquiring an additional 2,607,460 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 26,584 shares during the last quarter. 47.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Franklin Resources from $21.50 to $26.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Franklin Resources from $22.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Franklin Resources in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Franklin Resources from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Barclays reissued an "underweight" rating and issued a $23.00 target price (up from $20.00) on shares of Franklin Resources in a report on Monday, August 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus target price of $23.58.

Franklin Resources Price Performance

Shares of Franklin Resources stock traded down $0.10 on Tuesday, hitting $24.26. 1,880,021 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,389,361. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a 52 week low of $16.25 and a 52 week high of $26.08. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $22.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a current ratio of 1.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.51.

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The closed-end fund reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.38 billion. Franklin Resources had a net margin of 3.73% and a return on equity of 8.76%. Franklin Resources's quarterly revenue was down 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Franklin Resources, Inc. will post 2.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Franklin Resources Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th will be issued a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 30th. Franklin Resources's payout ratio is 250.98%.

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.