Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.32

Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 4th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.32 per share by the closed-end fund on Friday, April 11th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.23%.

Franklin Resources has raised its dividend by an average of 3.4% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 28 years. Franklin Resources has a dividend payout ratio of 53.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Franklin Resources to earn $2.37 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.28 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 54.0%.

Franklin Resources Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:BEN traded down $0.28 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $20.53. The stock had a trading volume of 211,868 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,738,622. The stock has a market cap of $10.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.42. Franklin Resources has a 52 week low of $18.83 and a 52 week high of $28.61. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $20.79 and its 200 day moving average is $20.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 1.63.

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The closed-end fund reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.03. Franklin Resources had a net margin of 4.32% and a return on equity of 9.41%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.65 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Franklin Resources will post 2.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Franklin Resources from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Franklin Resources from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Franklin Resources from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Franklin Resources from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $21.00 to $22.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Franklin Resources from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Franklin Resources presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.86.

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.