Franklin Resources Inc's quarterly profit beat expectations, helped by a rallying stock market and an inflow of cash from investors, the California asset manager said on Thursday.
For the fiscal second quarter that ended March 31, net income rose 41 percent to $503.1 million or $2.25 per share, from $356.7 million, or $1.55 per share, in the same period a year earlier.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S on average had expected the company to report a profit of $2.01 per share.
Total assets under management, a key driver of revenue and profit for fund companies, were $703.5 billion as of March 31, up from $670.7 billion at the end of December and $586.8 billion on March 31, 2010.
Market appreciation drove most of the increases, but the company also reported a net inflow of investor cash of $8.4 billion in the March quarter, excluding reinvested dividends, up from $3.2 billion in the December quarter.
Some peers including Janus Capital Groupand Legg Mason Inc have reported outflows in recent quarters, but Franklin Resources has benefited from investor interest in fixed income funds including its top-selling Templeton Global Bond Fund.
At the same time, Franklin Resources did not seem to match competitors including BlackRock Inc that recently have reported renewed investor interest in equity funds.
Franklin Resources reported a net outflow of cash from its equity funds of $2.3 billion in the first quarter, though trends in the area improved in March, Chief Executive Greg Johnson said on a webcast posted on the company's site.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.