Franklin's (BEN) September AUM Slightly Down On Lower Assets

Franklin Resources Inc. (NYSE:BEN) announced preliminary assets under management (AUM) by its subsidiaries of $733.3 billion for Sep 2016. This is down roughly 1% from $740.1 billion as of Aug 31 and nearly 5% from $770.9 billion as of Sep 30, 2015.

The month-end total equity assets came in at $303.7 billion, down around 0.8% from the prior month and 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Of the total equity assets, around 66% were from international sources, while the remaining 34% were from the U.S.

Total fixed income assets were $286.1 billion, down 1.4% from the prior month and around 8.6% from $312.9 billion recorded in Sep 2015. Overall, tax-free assets accounted for only 26% of the fixed income assets, while the remaining 74% were taxable.

Franklin recorded $137.4 billion in hybrid assets, which declined nearly 0.3% from $137.8 billion recorded in the prior month and around 0.7% from $138.3 billion in Sep 2015.

Cash management funds were reported at $6.1 billion, flat sequentially but down about 10.3% from $6.8 billion recorded in Sep 2015.

While the company’s global presence helps it diversify its AUM, regulatory restrictions and sluggish economic recovery might hurt growth and raise costs.

Franklin currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked finance company is Apollo Global Management, LLC (NYSE:APO) with a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Among other asset managers, Invesco Ltd. (NYSE:IVZ) reported AUM of $820.2 billion for Sep 2016. The figure reflected a fall of 0.1% from $821.0 billion recorded in the prior month. Legg Mason Inc. (NYSE:LM) is yet to release its preliminary AUM for the same time period.

Invesco currently holds a Zacks rank #2 (Buy), while Legg Mason carries a Zacks Rank #3.

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