Franklin Resources Pays Special Dividend, Watchlist of Peer Stocks: Financial Business Wrap

On Friday, the mutual-fund firm Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) announced a special dividend to be paid prior to the end of the year — a $3-per-share payout will be made on December 20th to holders of record as of December 6th. Some three weeks ago, Franklin’s peer, Federated Investors (NYSE:FII), reported its own special dividend. Monday morning, analyst Ed Ditmire at Macquarie referred to the move as a “shareholder-friendly move-up” of a likely first-quarter special dividend so as to “eliminate the risk of dividend tax uncertainties in 2013.” Daniel Fannon at Jefferies had a number of asset-management and securities-industry stocks on a special dividend watchlist earlier in November including CBOE Holdings (NASDAQ:CBOE), Waddell & Reed Financial (NYSE:WDR), and CME Group (NASDAQ:CME), among others.

Catalysts are critical to discovering winning stocks. Check out our newest CHEAT SHEET stock picks now.