The largest shareholder in Legg Mason has sold more than seven million shares in the US fund manager, reducing its stake from 14% to 9%, according to regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

French insurer Axa held 18.9 million shares in Legg Mason at the end of June, mostly through its fund management subsidiary AllianceBernstein. At Tuesday's closing price, the seven million share stake was worth about $600m (€424m).