FT - Franklin Universal Trust

What this means for you

None of the investors we follow has reported owning 5% or more of this fund. That is the normal state for most closed-end funds.

Nothing is required of you. If that changes, the notice appears here within a day of being filed with the regulator.

Email me if this changes

What happened, and when

Nothing on file yet. No large investor has reported a stake in this fund, and the fund has not announced a buy-back, a vote or a closing.

About this fund

• Run by Franklin Advisers, Inc. Part of the Franklin Templeton Group of Funds fund family. As of Aug 31, 2025, from the fund's yearly report. Original document →
• Size: about $215 million of holdings, as of Aug 31, 2026. As of Aug 31, 2026, from the fund's quarterly holdings report. Original document →
• Borrowing: the fund borrows about 22% on top of its own money, as of Aug 31, 2026. Borrowed money makes gains and losses bigger. As of Aug 31, 2026, from the fund's quarterly holdings report. Original document →
• Costs: 1% a year in management fees; 3% a year in total, including interest on borrowed money. Fiscal year ended Aug 31, 2025. As of Aug 31, 2025, from the fund's yearly report. Original document →
  Among the 90 funds we follow that invest in bonds, 35 charge a lower management fee and 40 charge less in total, at their last yearly reports. Both numbers are measured against the fund's own money, not the money it borrows on top, so a fund that borrows more shows higher costs on both counts.
• Payouts: last fiscal year the fund told the regulator that part of what it paid out was not income (it came from gains or from your own money back). Most funds announce their monthly or quarterly payout on their own website, not in a filing with the regulator, so a cut or a raise there does not show up here until the next yearly report. A few funds do file a notice about a fixed payout; those appear under What happened, and when. As of Aug 31, 2025, from the fund's yearly report. Original document →
• Value of holdings per share at the last fiscal year end (Aug 31, 2025): $8.46. The shares traded at $7.93, about 6.3% below that. As of Aug 31, 2025, from the fund's yearly report. Original document →
• How the holdings did: down 1.1% over the last three months we have (June-Aug 2026), before the share price is taken into account. As of Aug 31, 2026, from the fund's quarterly holdings report. Original document →
• First reported to the regulator in 1994.

What a holder made

• The holdings over the last twelve months we have, to Aug 31, 2026: +7.4%. The quarterly reports carry no share price, so this is the holdings alone; the yearly report, once filed and read, adds what the shares returned. As of Aug 31, 2026, from the fund's quarterly holdings report. Original document →
• A past year says nothing about the next one. All figures are the fund's own, from its reports to the regulator.

Why the shares and the holdings can differ: the gap between price and value. Why payouts count: a payout that is your own money back.

What the fund holds

Mostly bonds (59%), the rest shares and cash and short-term holdings. About 87% issued in the U.S.

1. NextEra Energy, Inc. - 4.4%
2. Cash and short-term - 3.8%
3. Sempra, Inc. - 3.4%
4. Entergy Corp. - 3%
5. Evergy, Inc. - 2.7%
6. Alliant Energy Corp. - 2.5%
7. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. - 2.3%
8. Duke Energy Corp. - 2.2%
9. American Electric Power Co., Inc. - 2%
10. Southern Co. - 2%

As of Aug 31, 2026, from the fund's quarterly holdings report. Original document →