Principal Financial Group Inc. Increases Stake in Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 381,192 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock after buying an additional 32,490 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.07% of Franklin Resources worth $7,681,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BEN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Franklin Resources by 11.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,889,477 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $1,008,853,000 after purchasing an additional 3,592,943 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Franklin Resources by 250.7% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,450,190 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $54,664,000 after buying an additional 1,751,587 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in Franklin Resources by 517.5% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,406,324 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $31,431,000 after buying an additional 1,178,594 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in Franklin Resources by 110.3% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,623,236 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $36,279,000 after acquiring an additional 851,442 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its holdings in shares of Franklin Resources by 325.1% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 906,270 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $20,255,000 after acquiring an additional 693,074 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 47.56% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Franklin Resources

In related news, insider Franklin Resources Inc sold 7,657 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.90, for a total transaction of $336,142.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 65,862 shares in the company, valued at $2,891,341.80. The trade was a 10.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Charles B. Johnson purchased 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $19.84 per share, for a total transaction of $1,984,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 89,208,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,769,890,529.28. The trade was a 0.11 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders acquired 231,600 shares of company stock valued at $4,537,637 and sold 24,024 shares valued at $1,051,375. Corporate insiders own 24.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on BEN. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of Franklin Resources from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Franklin Resources from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Franklin Resources from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on Franklin Resources from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Franklin Resources from $19.00 to $19.50 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.20.

Franklin Resources Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of BEN opened at $21.48 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.98, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a 50-day moving average of $20.56 and a 200 day moving average of $21.77. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a 1-year low of $18.94 and a 1-year high of $30.32.

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The closed-end fund reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.60 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $2.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Franklin Resources had a return on equity of 9.62% and a net margin of 5.48%. Franklin Resources’s quarterly revenue was up 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Franklin Resources, Inc. will post 2.4 EPS for the current year.

Franklin Resources Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. Franklin Resources’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 144.19%.

Franklin Resources 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.