Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC Sells 28,113 Shares of Franklin Resources, Inc. $BEN

Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) by 28.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 70,844 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock after selling 28,113 shares during the quarter. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Franklin Resources were worth $1,692,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BEN. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Franklin Resources by 26.2% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 148,049 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $2,850,000 after purchasing an additional 30,763 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its stake in shares of Franklin Resources by 169.3% in the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 7,909 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $152,000 after purchasing an additional 4,972 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP raised its stake in shares of Franklin Resources by 41.1% in the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 26,189 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $504,000 after purchasing an additional 7,634 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Franklin Resources in the 2nd quarter valued at about $169,000. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Franklin Resources by 52.2% in the 2nd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 509,171 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $12,144,000 after purchasing an additional 174,579 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 47.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on BEN. Barclays set a $31.00 price target on Franklin Resources and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Franklin Resources from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Franklin Resources from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $21.00 to $31.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Franklin Resources from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Evercore reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of Franklin Resources in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Franklin Resources currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.56.

Franklin Resources Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BEN opened at $31.66 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $27.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.68. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a 52 week low of $21.06 and a 52 week high of $32.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 1.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.45 billion, a PE ratio of 24.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.56.

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The closed-end fund reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.16. Franklin Resources had a return on equity of 10.58% and a net margin of 8.12%.The firm had revenue of $1.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.47 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Franklin Resources, Inc. will post 2.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Franklin Resources Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 29th will be given a $0.33 dividend. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 29th. Franklin Resources’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 100.76%.

Franklin Resources Company Profile

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.