Franklin Resources, Inc. Announces Preliminary Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year Results

Franklin Resources, Inc. (the “Company”) [NYSE: BEN] today announced preliminary net loss of $84.7 million or $0.19 per diluted share for the quarter ended September 30, 2024, as compared to net income of $174.0 million or $0.32 per diluted share for the previous quarter, and $295.5 million or $0.58 per diluted share for the quarter ended September 30, 2023. Preliminary net income¹ for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2024 was $464.8 million or $0.85 per diluted share, as compared to $882.8 million or $1.72 per diluted share for the prior fiscal year. Preliminary operating loss was $150.7 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2024, as compared to operating income of $222.5 million for the previous quarter and $338.3 million for the prior year. During the quarter ended September 30, 2024, the Company impaired its indefinite-lived intangible asset related to certain mutual fund contracts managed by Western Asset Management by $389.2 million.

As supplemental information, the Company is providing certain adjusted performance measures which are based on methodologies other than generally accepted accounting principles. Preliminary adjusted net income² was $315.2 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share² was $0.59 for the quarter ended September 30, 2024, as compared to $326.4 million and $0.60 for the previous quarter, and $427.0 million and $0.84 for the quarter ended September 30, 2023. Preliminary adjusted net income² was $1,276.7 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share² was $2.39 for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2024, as compared to $1,332.2 million and $2.60 for the prior fiscal year. Preliminary adjusted operating income² was $451.6 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2024, as compared to $424.9 million for the previous quarter and $511.7 million for the prior year.

“Franklin Templeton is one of the most comprehensive global asset managers with investment management capabilities across public and private markets and a distribution reach with clients in over 150 countries,” said Jenny Johnson, President and CEO of Franklin Resources, Inc. “Over the past several years, we have successfully grown and further diversified our business by investment team, asset class, investment vehicle and geography.

“As we reflect on our fiscal year, global markets rallied significantly, despite ongoing geopolitical complexity and uncertainty. Against this backdrop, we reached record AUM of $1.68 trillion and saw a 25% increase from the prior year in long-term inflows to $319 billion. Long-term net outflows were $32.6 billion, including $20.7 billion of reinvested distributions. Excluding Western Asset Management, our long-term net inflows were $16.0 billion.

“During the fiscal year, we continued to increase our presence in our key focus areas which reflect areas of long-term client demand. Client interest in alternative and multi-asset investment strategies generated positive flows for the year. Private markets fundraising totaled $14.8 billion with flagship funds in secondary private equity and alternative credit exceeding fund targets. We saw strong growth across a broad range of investment vehicles with retail SMA, ETF and Canvas^® AUM increasing by 29%, 89% and 94% year-over-year, respectively – all to record highs. From a regional perspective, our international business continued to be a strength of the firm and experienced positive long-term net flows for the year, culminating in over $500 billion in AUM.

“Our acquisition of Putnam Investments has exceeded our expectations. Since closing on January 1, Putnam’s AUM has grown 21% to $180 billion and Franklin Templeton has generated positive net flows of approximately $11 billion in Putnam strategies, benefiting from our global distribution platform. The transaction has also exceeded our annual run-rate cost savings target of $150 million. We have returned $946 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.

“We remain committed to our vision of building innovative and collaborative relationships with our clients and look forward to unlocking new opportunities that reflect the high standards that have defined Franklin Templeton as a trusted partner over 75 years. I would like to thank our employees around the world for their dedication and commitment to always putting our clients first.”

Total assets under management (“AUM”) were $1,678.6 billion at September 30, 2024, up $32.0 billion or 2% during the quarter due to the positive impact of $63.5 billion of net market change, distributions, and other, partially offset by $31.3 billion of long-term net outflows, inclusive of $37.0 billion of long-term net outflows at Western Asset Management, and $0.2 billion of cash management net outflows. AUM increased $304.4 billion or 22% during the fiscal year due to the positive impact of $186.0 billion of net market change, distributions and other, $148.3 billion from the acquisition of Putnam, and $2.7 billion of cash management net inflows, partially offset by $32.6 billion of long-term net outflows, inclusive of $48.6 billion of long-term net outflows at Western Asset Management.

Cash and cash equivalents and investments were $5.6 billion and, including the Company’s direct investments in consolidated investment products (“CIPs”), were $6.7 billion⁴ at September 30, 2024. Total stockholders’ equity was $13.3 billion and the Company had 523.6 million shares of common stock outstanding at September 30, 2024. The Company repurchased 4.9 million shares of its common stock for a total cost of $102.4 million during the quarter ended September 30, 2024.

Conference Call Information

A written commentary on the results by Jenny Johnson, President and CEO; Matthew Nicholls, Executive Vice President, CFO and COO; and Adam Spector, Executive Vice President, Head of Global Distribution will be available via investors.franklinresources.com today at approximately 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

Ms. Johnson and Messrs. Nicholls and Spector will also lead a live teleconference today at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time to answer questions. Access to the teleconference will be available via investors.franklinresources.com or by dialing (+1) (877) 407-0989 in North America or (+1) (201) 389-0921 in other locations. A replay of the teleconference can also be accessed by calling (+1) (877) 660-6853 in North America or (+1) (201) 612-7415 in other locations using access code 13749455 after 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time on November 4, 2024 through November 10, 2024, or via investors.franklinresources.com.

Analysts and investors are encouraged to review the Company’s recent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and to contact Investor Relations at investorrelations@franklintempleton.com before the live teleconference for any clarifications or questions related to the earnings release or written commentary.

Supplemental Non-GAAP Financial Measures

As supplemental information, we are providing performance measures for “adjusted operating income,” “adjusted operating margin,” “adjusted net income” and “adjusted diluted earnings per share,” each of which is based on methodologies other than generally accepted accounting principles (“non-GAAP measures”). Management believes these non-GAAP measures are useful indicators of our financial performance and may be helpful to investors in evaluating our relative performance against industry peers.

“Adjusted operating income,” “adjusted operating margin,” “adjusted net income” and “adjusted diluted earnings per share” are defined below, followed by reconciliations of operating income (loss), operating margin, net income attributable to Franklin Resources, Inc. and diluted earnings per share on a U.S. GAAP basis to these non-GAAP measures. Non-GAAP measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as substitutes for, any financial information prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies. Additional reconciling items may be added in the future to these non-GAAP measures if deemed appropriate.

Adjusted Operating Income

We define adjusted operating income as operating income (loss) adjusted to exclude the following:

• Elimination of operating revenues upon consolidation of investment products.
• Acquisition-related items:
  • Acquisition-related retention compensation.
  • Other acquisition-related expenses including professional fees, technology costs and fair value adjustments related to contingent consideration assets and liabilities.
  • Amortization of intangible assets.
  • Impairment of intangible assets and goodwill, if any.
• Special termination benefits related to workforce optimization initiatives related to past acquisitions and certain initiatives undertaken by the Company.
• Impact on compensation and benefits expense from gains and losses on investments related to deferred compensation plans, which is offset in investment and other income (losses), net.
• Impact on compensation and benefits expense related to minority interests in certain subsidiaries, which is offset in net income (loss) attributable to redeemable noncontrolling interests.

Adjusted Operating Margin

We calculate adjusted operating margin as adjusted operating income divided by adjusted operating revenues. We define adjusted operating revenues as operating revenues adjusted to exclude the following:

• Elimination of operating revenues upon consolidation of investment products.
• Acquisition-related performance-based investment management fees which are passed through as compensation and benefits expense.
• Sales and distribution fees and a portion of investment management fees allocated to cover sales, distribution and marketing expenses paid to the financial advisers and other intermediaries who sell our funds on our behalf.

Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share

We define adjusted net income as net income attributable to Franklin Resources, Inc. adjusted to exclude the following:

• Activities of CIPs.
• Acquisition-related items:
  • Acquisition-related retention compensation.
  • Other acquisition-related expenses including professional fees, technology costs and fair value adjustments related to contingent consideration assets and liabilities.
  • Amortization of intangible assets.
  • Impairment of intangible assets and goodwill, if any.
  • Write off of noncontrolling interests related to the wind down of an acquired business.
  • Interest expense for amortization of Legg Mason debt premium from acquisition-date fair value adjustment.
• Special termination benefits related to workforce optimization initiatives related to past acquisitions and certain initiatives undertaken by the Company.
• Net gains or losses on investments related to deferred compensation plans which are not offset by compensation and benefits expense.
• Net compensation and benefits expense related to minority interests in certain subsidiaries not offset by net income (loss) attributable to redeemable noncontrolling interests.
• Unrealized investment gains and losses.
• Net income tax expense of the above adjustments based on the respective blended rates applicable to the adjustments.

We define adjusted diluted earnings per share as diluted earnings per share adjusted to exclude the per share impacts of the adjustments applied to net income in calculating adjusted net income.

In calculating our non-GAAP measures, we adjust for the impact of CIPs because it is not considered reflective of our underlying results of operations. Acquisition-related items and special termination benefits are excluded to facilitate comparability to other asset management firms. We adjust for compensation and benefits expense related to funded deferred compensation plans because it is partially offset in other income (expense), net. We adjust for compensation and benefits expense and net income (loss) attributable to redeemable noncontrolling interests to reflect the economics of certain profits interest arrangements. Sales and distribution fees and a portion of investment management fees generally cover sales, distribution and marketing expenses and, therefore, are excluded from adjusted operating revenues. In addition, when calculating adjusted net income and adjusted diluted earnings per share we exclude unrealized investment gains and losses included in investment and other income (losses) because the related investments are generally expected to be held long term.

The calculations of adjusted operating income, adjusted operating margin, adjusted net income and adjusted diluted earnings per share are as follows: