Franklin Templeton Q4 2025: Why a $19.33B Microsoft stake sits atop a $407.59B 13F portfolio

Franklin Templeton’s Q4 filing is easiest to read from the top down

Franklin Resources, the parent company behind Franklin Templeton, finished 2025Q4 with $407.59B in reported 13F assets, 14,263 disclosed holdings, and a 65.25 WhaleScore. The cleanest hook is right at the top: Microsoft was the largest disclosed position at $19.33B, ahead of Nvidia at $18.07B and Apple at $12.92B.

That matters because Franklin Templeton is a multi-manager asset-management platform, not a one-theme hedge fund. When a platform this large shows the top of its U.S. equity book clustering around MSFT, NVDA, AAPL, Amazon, Alphabet Class A, and Broadcom, the lesson for retail readers is not that Franklin Templeton suddenly became a momentum trader. The lesson is that its disclosed U.S. equity sleeve still centers on the market’s most liquid and structurally dominant franchises.

TL;DR

• Scale: Franklin Resources reported $407.59B in 13F AUM for 2025Q4, up from $401.02B in 2025Q3.
• Breadth: The disclosed holdings count rose from 14,148 to 14,263, so the filing got slightly larger in both value and line count.
• Top of book: Microsoft led at 5.06% of the portfolio, followed by Nvidia at 4.73% and Apple at 3.38%.
• Interpretation: The filing looks like a broad institutional equity book anchored by U.S. mega-cap compounders rather than a concentrated single-theme bet.
• Context: The 13F is only one window into Franklin Templeton. Readers should pair it with the official SEC filing, the firm’s Q4 2025 investor presentation, and management commentary on operating results.

What did Franklin Templeton buy in Q4 2025?

If you only read the headline table, the answer is straightforward: the biggest disclosed positions were Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Broadcom, Meta Platforms, Exxon Mobil, Eli Lilly, and Alphabet Class C. Every name in the top-10 snapshot is marked as a new position in the brief, which tells me this article should be read as a disclosure snapshot, not as a claim that Franklin Templeton abandoned everything else it owned before quarter-end.

That distinction matters. Franklin Templeton files a very large combination report, and the company’s broader strategy shows up more clearly in management materials than in a single rankings table. In the Q4 2025 investor presentation, management framed the business around diversified specialist investment managers, private markets expansion, and technology-enabled distribution. In the first quarter results release, Jenny Johnson also emphasized improving flows outside Western Asset Management and continued fundraising in alternatives. That external context helps explain why a mega-cap-heavy disclosed equity sleeve should not be mistaken for the whole Franklin Templeton business.

How has Franklin Resources’ reported 13F book changed over time?

The eight-quarter history is more useful than one quarter alone. Franklin Resources moved from $315.82B in 2024Q1 to $407.59B in 2025Q4, while the disclosed holdings count climbed from 11,977 to 14,263. The message is not explosive concentration. It is steady expansion in a large and diversified public-equity book.

The step-ups in 2025Q2, 2025Q3, and 2025Q4 matter most. Reported 13F AUM increased from $377.19B to $401.02B and then to $407.59B across the second half of 2025. For readers asking whether Franklin Templeton’s filing looks defensive or offensive, I would call it institutionally constructive: rising reported value, rising line count, and a top layer dominated by durable, benchmark-heavy names rather than distressed specials.

Why this filing matters beyond one quarter

Franklin Templeton’s broader corporate story helps explain why this 13F looks so benchmark-aware. In 2025 the firm highlighted its Apera acquisition to deepen private-credit capabilities, while continuing to talk about technology-enabled growth. That same arc shows up in the company’s Microsoft AI platform announcement and the later Intelligence Hub launch. Put differently: Franklin Templeton is trying to be broader, more platform-like, and more scalable as a business, so it is not surprising that its disclosed U.S. equity book skews toward names that are liquid, index-relevant, and easy to size across many mandates.

That is also why I would be careful with a common misread. A 13F article about Franklin Templeton is not really about whether the firm “picked” Microsoft over Nvidia. It is about what the filing says regarding the investable core of a very large asset manager’s U.S. equity exposure. From that angle, this quarter suggests Franklin Templeton remained comfortable owning the infrastructure layer of the market: software, semiconductors, cloud, digital advertising, and global platform companies.

FAQ: What are readers usually asking about Franklin Templeton’s Q4 2025 13F?

What did Franklin Templeton buy in Q4 2025?

The top disclosed names were MSFT, NVDA, AAPL, AMZN, GOOGL, and AVGO. In the brief, each of those positions is labeled as new.

Did Franklin Resources get bigger or smaller in Q4 2025?

Bigger. Reported 13F AUM increased from $401.02B in 2025Q3 to $407.59B in 2025Q4, and holdings count rose from 14,148 to 14,263.

Is this filing the same thing as Franklin Templeton’s full business AUM?

No. The 13F filing covers reportable U.S. equity holdings. To understand the whole firm, pair it with Franklin Resources’ investor relations filings and reports.

Sources and further reading

• Franklin Resources 2025Q4 Form 13F-HR on SEC EDGAR
• Franklin Resources Q4 2025 investor presentation
• Franklin Resources first quarter results release
• Apera acquisition announcement
• Franklin Templeton and Microsoft AI platform announcement
• Intelligence Hub launch announcement

If you want to keep going, compare this filing with the live Franklin Resources profile and the individual stock pages for MSFT, NVDA, AAPL, AMZN, and AVGO.