Franklin's (BEN) January AUM Up, Hybrid & Equity Assets Rise

Franklin Resources Inc. (NYSE:BEN) has announced preliminary assets under management (AUM) by its subsidiaries of $770.8 billion for January 2018. Results display 2.3% rise from $753.8 billion recorded as of Dec 31, 2017. However, the figure moved up 5.8% from the prior year.

Month-end total equity assets came in at $333.6 billion, around 3.8% up from the previous month and 9.2% year over year. Of the total equity assets, around 66% were from international sources, while the remaining 34% came in from the United States.

Total fixed income assets were $285 billion, slightly up from the previous month and 2.6% from the prior year. Overall, tax-free assets accounted for only 24% of the fixed-income assets, while the remaining 76% was taxable.

Franklin recorded $145.4 billion in hybrid assets, which was up 1.9% from $142.7 billion recorded in the previous month and 4.4% from $139.3 billion recorded in January 2017.

Cash management funds were reported at $6.8 billion, up from $6.6 billion recorded in the prior month and $6.2 billion in the year-ago period.

The company’s global footprint is an exceptionally favorable strategic point as its AUM is well diversified. Nevertheless, regulatory restrictions and sluggish economic recovery might mar AUM growth and escalate costs.

Franklin currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Shares of the company have declined around 10.9% over the last six months compared with 7.9% 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 January 2018, early next week.

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