State of Wyoming Buys Shares of 15,812 Franklin Resources, Inc. $BEN

State of Wyoming purchased a new position in shares of Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 15,812 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock, valued at approximately $373,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BEN. Mariner LLC lifted its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 56,151 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $1,341,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares during the period. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT raised its stake in Franklin Resources by 35.5% in the fourth quarter. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT now owns 1,512 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 396 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its stake in Franklin Resources by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 9,751 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $233,000 after buying an additional 397 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Franklin Resources by 12.2% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 3,671 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $87,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Finally, Sigma Planning Corp raised its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 67,747 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $1,600,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 47.56% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Franklin Resources from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Franklin Resources from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Franklin Resources from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, June 14th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Franklin Resources from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Evercore reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $35.00 target price on shares of Franklin Resources in a research report on Friday, July 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.00.

Franklin Resources Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BEN opened at $32.48 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 1.87. The company has a market cap of $16.88 billion, a PE ratio of 24.79, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.54. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.58. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $21.10 and a fifty-two week high of $34.92.

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The closed-end fund reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $1.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Franklin Resources had a return on equity of 10.58% and a net margin of 8.12%.The company’s revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.47 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Franklin Resources, Inc. will post 2.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Franklin Resources Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 29th were given a dividend of $0.33 per share. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 29th. Franklin Resources’s payout ratio is currently 100.76%.

Franklin Resources Profile

Franklin Resources, Inc, doing business as Franklin Templeton, is a global investment management organization that offers a wide range of asset management solutions to institutional and individual investors. The firm’s core focus is on delivering active portfolio management across equities, fixed income, multi-asset strategies and alternative investments. Franklin Templeton’s product lineup includes mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), closed-end funds, separately managed accounts and sub-advisory services designed to meet varying risk-return objectives and income needs.

Founded in 1947 by Rupert H.