Norges Bank Buys New Position in Franklin Resources, Inc. $BEN

Norges Bank bought a new stake in Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 2,541,624 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock, valued at approximately $60,618,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wright Investors Service Inc. lifted its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 3.5% in the second quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 20,968 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $500,000 after purchasing an additional 706 shares in the last quarter. Gen Wealth Partners Inc lifted its position in Franklin Resources by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. Gen Wealth Partners Inc now owns 25,972 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $500,000 after buying an additional 718 shares in the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Franklin Resources by 8.3% during the 2nd quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 9,351 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $223,000 after buying an additional 718 shares during the last quarter. Consultiva Wealth Management CORP. grew its holdings in shares of Franklin Resources by 177.1% in the 2nd quarter. Consultiva Wealth Management CORP. now owns 1,283 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 820 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aviva PLC increased its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 8.2% in the second quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 11,910 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $284,000 after acquiring an additional 901 shares during the last quarter. 47.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BEN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Franklin Resources from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on Franklin Resources in a report on Friday, October 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $26.00 price objective for the company. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Franklin Resources from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Franklin Resources from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Franklin Resources in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Franklin Resources has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $23.91.

Franklin Resources Trading Up 1.1%

BEN stock opened at $23.40 on Friday. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a one year low of $16.25 and a one year high of $26.08. The stock has a market cap of $12.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $22.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $23.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.40.

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