Franklin Resources, Inc. (BEN): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Southpoint Capital Advisors, managed by John Smith Clark, assembled the largest call position in Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN). Southpoint Capital Advisors had $37.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Sidman’s Three Bays Capital also made a $37.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new BEN positions are Paul Orlin and Alex Porter’s Amici Capital, Gregg Moskowitz’s Interval Partners, and Paul Orlin and Alex Porter’s Amici Capital.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN). We will take a look at Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE:BHI), Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc (NYSE:HLT), Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS), and Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to BEN’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 46.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1940 million. That figure was $1811 million in BEN’s case. Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE:BHI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) is the least popular one with only 31 bullish hedge fund positions. Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard BHI might be a better candidate to consider a long position.