Marshall Wace LLP Sells 3,802,939 Shares of Franklin Resources, Inc. $BEN

Marshall Wace LLP trimmed its holdings in Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) by 82.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 788,946 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock after selling 3,802,939 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP’s holdings in Franklin Resources were worth $18,816,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Evergreen Quality Fund GP Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of 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. Norges Bank bought a new position in Franklin Resources in the 2nd quarter worth about $60,618,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Franklin Resources by 20.3% during the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Franklin Resources during the first quarter valued at about $13,878,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Franklin Resources in the second quarter worth about $13,168,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 47.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Franklin Resources from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Franklin Resources from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 10th. Wall Street Zen raised Franklin Resources from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on Franklin Resources in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $26.00 target price for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Franklin Resources from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Franklin Resources currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $23.91.

Franklin Resources Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of BEN stock opened at $23.46 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $22.68 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $23.57. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a 12-month low of $16.25 and a 12-month high of $26.08. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market cap of $12.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.47.

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 7th. The closed-end fund reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.17 billion. Franklin Resources had a return on equity of 9.12% and a net margin of 5.98%.Franklin Resources’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.59 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Franklin Resources, Inc. will post 2.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Franklin Resources Company 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.