Franklin Resources Chairman Sells $40+ Million in Stock (BEN)

A fed filing today from FRANKLIN RESOURCES INC. (NYSE: BEN) indicates that Chairman of the Board Charles Johnson sold 400,000 on June 13 in two transactions at $104.78.  The value of the transaction before fees was $41.912 million.

Normally this might show up as a huge flag because of the size, but after looking further at that filing he still holds more than 35.4 million shares in direct ownership and holds more than 9 million more in his IRA, 401K, and in spouse's Trust.

Franklin Resources has a market cap north of $25 Billion and trades over 1.8 million shares on an average daily volume.

Jon C. Ogg
June 16, 2008