New York State Common Retirement Fund Decreases Position in Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN)

New York State Common Retirement Fund reduced its stake in Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) by 15.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 228,981 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock after selling 41,240 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Franklin Resources were worth $6,821,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BEN. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Franklin Resources by 138.0% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,750,779 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $43,034,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015,225 shares during the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Franklin Resources during the third quarter worth approximately $14,684,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings 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 valued at $161,338,000 after acquiring an additional 415,512 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC raised its position in Franklin Resources by 53.6% in the 4th 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 last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Franklin Resources by 383.1% during the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 502,840 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $12,360,000 after purchasing an additional 398,745 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 47.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BEN has been the subject of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Franklin Resources from $30.00 to $27.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group increased their price objective on Franklin Resources from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on Franklin Resources from $29.00 to $24.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. TD Cowen decreased their price target on Franklin Resources from $29.00 to $25.50 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Franklin Resources from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.00.

Franklin Resources Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE BEN opened at $23.38 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $26.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.32. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a 52 week low of $21.88 and a 52 week high of $30.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.44.

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The closed-end fund reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.01). Franklin Resources had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 11.09%. The firm had revenue of $2.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.66 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.61 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Franklin Resources, Inc. will post 2.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Franklin Resources Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. Franklin Resources’s payout ratio is currently 70.86%.

About Franklin Resources

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.