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Franklin (BEN) February AUM Climbs on Higher Hybrid Assets

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Franklin Resources Inc. (BEN - Free Report) announced preliminary assets under management (AUM) by its subsidiaries of $738.2 billion for Feb 2017. The results displayed around 1.3% rise from $728.8 billion as of Jan 31, 2017. Further, the figure increased 3.4% from the prior year.

Month-end total equity assets came in at $308.8 billion, up around 1.1% from the prior month, and 8.1% year over year. Of the total equity assets, around 66% were from international sources, while the remaining 34% came from the U.S.

Total fixed income assets were $281.0 billion, up 1.1% from the previous month; but down 4.5% from $294.3 billion recorded in Feb 2016. Overall, tax-free assets accounted for only 26% of the fixed income assets, while the remaining 74% was taxable.

Franklin recorded $142.1 billion in hybrid assets, which improved around 2% from $139.3 billion recorded in the prior month and 11.7% from $127.2 billion in Feb 2016.

Cash management funds were reported at $6.3 billion, up from $6.2 billion in the prior month. However, the figure was down from $6.8 billion recorded in Feb 2016.

Though the company’s global presence helps it diversify AUM; regulatory restrictions and sluggish economic recovery might impair growth and escalate 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 16.8% over the past six months, outperforming the 9.8% growth for the Zacks categorized Investment Management industry.



A better-ranked finance company is Apollo Global Management, LLC (APO - Free Report) , carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The company’s shares gained over 21.7% over the past six months. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the stock climbed 4.2% to $2.25, over the last 30 days, for 2017.

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

Among other asset managers, Invesco Ltd. (IVZ - Free Report) and Legg Mason Inc. are expected to release preliminary AUM results for Feb 2017, earlier next week.

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