Franklin Resources' (BEN) December AUM Up On Net Market Gains

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) has announced preliminary assets under management (AUM) by its subsidiaries of $698.3 billion for December 2019. Results display 1% increase from the $691.3 billion recorded as of Nov 30, 2019. Net market gains were partly offset by net outflows. Further, the reported figure climbed 7.4% year on year.

Month-end total equity assets came in at $280.5 billion, up around 2.2% from the previous month and 6.6% year over year. Of the total equity assets, around 58% were from international sources, while the remaining 42% came in from the United States.

Total fixed income assets were $270.9 billion, down around 0.4% from November 2019 but up 7.5% from the prior year. Overall, tax-free assets accounted for only 25% of the fixed-income assets, while the remaining 75% was taxable.

Franklin recorded $136.5 billion in hybrid assets, up 1.4% from the $134.6 billion witnessed in the previous month, and 9.4% from the $124.8 billion reported in December 2018.

Cash-management funds came in at $10.4 billion, up from the prior-month figure of $10.2 billion and $10.1 billion recorded in the previous year.

Though regulatory restrictions and sluggish economic recovery might impede AUM growth, and escalate costs, the company’s global footprint is a favorable strategic point as its AUM is well diversified.

Currently, Franklin carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Shares of the company have lost around 16.9% in the past year as against 11.1% growth recorded by the industry. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Among other asset managers, Invesco Ltd. (NYSE:IVZ) , T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) and Legg Mason Inc. (NYSE:LM) are expected to release preliminary AUM results for December, earlier next week.

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