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Franklin January AUM Up on Higher Equity Assets; Shares Gain

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Shares of Franklin Resources Inc. (BEN - Free Report) inched up 1.86% after the company announced preliminary assets under management (AUM) by its subsidiaries of $728.8 billion for Jan 2017. The results exhibited around 1.2% rise from $720.0 billion as of Dec 31, 2016. However, the figure was almost in line with the prior year.

Month-end total equity assets came in at $305.4 billion, up around 2.4% from the prior month and 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. Of the total equity assets, around 66% were from international sources, while the remaining 33% came from the U.S.

Total fixed income assets were $277.9 billion, up slightly from the previous month, but up 8.2% from the $309.7 billion recorded in Jan 2016. Overall, tax-free assets accounted for only 26% of the fixed income assets, while the remaining 74% was taxable.

Franklin recorded $139.3 billion in hybrid assets, which improved around 1% from $138.3 billion recorded in the prior month and 8.7% from $128.1 billion in Jan 2016.

Cash management funds were reported at $6.2 billion, in line with the prior month, however down from $6.7 billion recorded in Jan 2016.

Though the company’s global presence helps it diversify AUM; regulatory restrictions and sluggish economic recovery might impair growth and raise costs. Moreover, Franklin is subject to numerous regulations by the U.S. and non-U.S. regulators, which pose concerns to its operations and may even hurt profitability.

Franklin currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). The company’s stock gained 28.7% over the past one year, underperforming the 30.9% growth for the Zacks categorized Investment Management industry.



A better-ranked finance company is Apollo Global Management, LLC (APO - Free Report) , sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). The company’s shares gained over 86.8% over the past one year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the stock climbed 11.4% to $2.25, over the last 30 days, for 2017.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Among other asset managers, Invesco Ltd. (IVZ - Free Report) reported preliminary month-end AUM of $825.3 billion, up 1.5% from the prior month. The rise was driven by favorable market returns, foreign exchange and net long-term inflows, partially offset by a decline in money market AUM and outflows in PowerShares QQQs.

Legg Mason Inc. is expected to release preliminary AUM results for Jan 2017, later this week.

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