Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC Has $249,000 Position in Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN)

Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC increased its position in shares of Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) by 13.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 12,290 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock after buying an additional 1,450 shares during the quarter. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Franklin Resources were worth $249,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BEN. State Street Corp increased its position in Franklin Resources by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 21,155,516 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $432,730,000 after purchasing an additional 599,045 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Franklin Resources by 6.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,334,601 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $147,312,000 after buying an additional 422,688 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Franklin Resources by 44.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,998,574 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $60,421,000 after acquiring an additional 925,590 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC grew its position in Franklin Resources by 22.9% in the third quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 2,213,663 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $44,605,000 after acquiring an additional 411,931 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Franklin Resources by 263.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,022,055 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $40,744,000 after purchasing an additional 1,465,148 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 47.56% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Franklin Resources from $21.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group decreased their price target on Franklin Resources from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. TD Cowen cut their price objective on Franklin Resources from $20.00 to $18.50 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Franklin Resources from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $19.00 price target (down previously from $20.00) on shares of Franklin Resources in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have given a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.18.

Franklin Resources Price Performance

Shares of Franklin Resources stock opened at $22.22 on Friday. 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 company has a market cap of $11.64 billion, a PE ratio of 25.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.41. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $20.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $21.01. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $18.83 and a fifty-two week high of $28.61.

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The closed-end fund reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.03. Franklin Resources had a return on equity of 9.62% and a net margin of 5.48%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.65 EPS. Analysts expect that Franklin Resources, Inc. will post 2.21 EPS for the current year.

Franklin Resources Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Investors of record on Monday, December 30th were given a $0.32 dividend. This is a boost from Franklin Resources’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 30th. Franklin Resources’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 148.84%.

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.