Franklin Resources, Inc. (BEN): What’s Happened?

But Franklin is also under threat from the exchange-traded fund arena. Growth in ETFs has exploded in recent years, as BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) has come to dominate the ETF space with its massive index-oriented fund offerings. In response, Franklin has sought and received SEC approval to run actively managed ETFs, although so far, the company hasn’t actually had an active ETF start trading. Competitors Fidelity and T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) have received SEC permission as well for active ETFs, and so it’ll be important for Franklin to coordinate its eventual launch to maximize its impression in the space.

Franklin Resources dividend data by YCharts.

As you can see, Franklin makes up for its puny regular dividend by making special dividends from time to time. With special dividends of $3 per share late last year and $2 in 2011, Franklin continued its history of supplementing its payout on a fairly regular basis. Given the token increases in regular dividends that Franklin has made in recent years, investors will demand supplemental special dividends in order to keep their overall income high.

When will Franklin Resources raise its dividends again?
Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) just raised its regular dividend in December, so you shouldn’t expect an increase until later this year. The bigger question will be whether Franklin comes through with another special dividend. Given its strong earnings, the company certainly has the capacity to do so, but only time will tell whether corporate management decides to share Franklin’s wealth with its shareholders.

The article Investing in This Investment Provider Has Reaped Big Dividends originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Dan Caplinger has no position in any stocks mentioned. You can follow him on Twitter @DanCaplinger. The Motley Fool recommends BlackRock.

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