Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN)

Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders bought 7,097 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 736% compared to the typical volume of 849 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Franklin Resources

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of Franklin Resources by 17.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 26,652,644 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $793,983,000 after buying an additional 4,043,808 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 415,512 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Franklin Resources by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,067,780 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $91,398,000 after acquiring an additional 154,850 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 7.1% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,053,751 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $75,061,000 after acquiring an additional 202,288 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Franklin Resources by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,878,337 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $55,956,000 after acquiring an additional 37,474 shares in the last quarter. 47.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on BEN. StockNews.com cut shares of Franklin Resources from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Franklin Resources from $29.00 to $25.50 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Franklin Resources from $29.00 to $26.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on shares of Franklin Resources from $29.00 to $24.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Franklin Resources from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Three investment 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 company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.00.

Franklin Resources Stock Performance

Shares of Franklin Resources stock traded up $0.44 on Thursday, reaching $23.92. 1,180,067 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,781,685. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.58 billion, a PE ratio of 13.73, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.44. Franklin Resources has a 1-year low of $21.88 and a 1-year high of $30.32. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $26.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $26.38.

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The closed-end fund reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $2.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.66 billion. Franklin Resources had a net margin of 11.09% and a return on equity of 10.82%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.61 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Franklin Resources will post 2.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.