Franklin Resources, Inc. (BEN) Cut to “Market Perform” at Wells Fargo & Company

Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) was downgraded by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on BEN. BidaskClub upgraded Franklin Resources from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 20th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded Franklin Resources from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 17th. Jefferies Group LLC reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $44.00 price objective on shares of Franklin Resources in a research note on Friday, July 14th. Citigroup Inc. reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $43.00 price objective (up from $42.00) on shares of Franklin Resources in a research note on Friday, June 9th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $47.00 price objective on shares of Franklin Resources in a research note on Thursday, July 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Franklin Resources presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $42.10.

Shares of Franklin Resources (BEN) opened at 46.67 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $26.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.04 and a beta of 1.73. Franklin Resources has a 1-year low of $33.02 and a 1-year high of $47.05. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $44.62 and a 200 day moving average of $42.47.

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 28th. The closed-end fund reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.07. Franklin Resources had a return on equity of 14.34% and a net margin of 27.77%. The business had revenue of $1.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.61 EPS. Franklin Resources’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Franklin Resources will post $2.93 EPS for the current year.

In related news, CFO Kenneth A. Lewis sold 17,141 shares of Franklin Resources stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.51, for a total transaction of $762,945.91. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 124,021 shares in the company, valued at $5,520,174.71. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 21.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BEN. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 1,550.0% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 21,119,419 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $889,973,000 after buying an additional 19,839,472 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 5.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,930,042 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $1,134,833,000 after buying an additional 1,337,903 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 996.3% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 716,720 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $30,203,000 after buying an additional 651,346 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 64.7% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,058,071 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $44,587,000 after buying an additional 415,733 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 25.5% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,534,117 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $64,648,000 after buying an additional 311,257 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 45.48% of the company’s stock.

About Franklin Resources

Franklin Resources, Inc is a holding company. The Company, along with its subsidiaries, operates as Franklin Templeton Investments. It is a global investment management company that provides investment management and related services to retail, institutional and high net-worth clients in jurisdictions around the world.