48,587 Shares in T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. $TROW Bought by AustralianSuper Pty Ltd

Key Points

• AustralianSuper Pty Ltd bought a new stake in T. Rowe Price Group, acquiring 48,587 shares valued at about $4.97 million in the fourth quarter.
• Analyst sentiment remains cautious: the stock has a consensus “Reduce” rating with an average target price of $99.54, and several firms recently trimmed their price targets.
• T. Rowe Price reported better-than-expected Q1 results, with EPS of $2.52 versus estimates of $2.37, and it also declared a quarterly dividend of $1.30 per share, implying a 5.1% annual yield.

AustralianSuper Pty Ltd acquired a new position in shares of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 48,587 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $4,974,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. grew its stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 540.9% during the fourth quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 282 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 238 shares during the period. Root Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group during the third quarter worth $30,000. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Sound Income Strategies LLC grew its stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 170.3% during the fourth quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 300 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares during the period. Finally, Quent Capital LLC acquired a new position in T. Rowe Price Group in the third quarter valued at about $39,000. 73.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Evercore decreased their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $106.00 to $104.00 in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Morgan Stanley set a $105.00 target price on T. Rowe Price Group in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c)" rating on shares of T. Rowe Price Group in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $106.00 to $100.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $106.00 to $103.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, T. Rowe Price Group presently has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and an average target price of $99.54.

Insider Activity at T. Rowe Price Group

In other news, VP Stephon A. Jackson sold 3,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.56, for a total value of $307,680.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 83,883 shares in the company, valued at $8,603,040.48. The trade was a 3.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

T. Rowe Price Group Price Performance

Shares of T. Rowe Price Group stock opened at $102.01 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $21.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 1.51. The stock's 50-day moving average is $94.55 and its 200-day moving average is $99.23. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. has a one year low of $85.22 and a one year high of $118.22.

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The asset manager reported $2.52 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.37 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.85 billion. T. Rowe Price Group had a return on equity of 20.60% and a net margin of 28.28%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.23 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. will post 9.61 EPS for the current year.

T. Rowe Price Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.1%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. T. Rowe Price Group's payout ratio is 55.73%.

T. Rowe Price Group Company Profile

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc is a global investment management firm headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, founded by Thomas Rowe Price Jr. in 1937. The company provides a broad range of investment products and services for individual investors, financial intermediaries, retirement plan sponsors and institutional clients. Its offerings are built around active investment management and in-house research across equity, fixed income and multi-asset strategies, reflecting a long history as a research-driven asset manager.

The firm's product lineup includes mutual funds, separate accounts, collective investment trusts, target-date and target-risk funds, and managed account solutions, as well as services for defined contribution and defined benefit retirement plans.

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