Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Takes $1 Million Position in T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. $TROW

Key Points

• Louisiana State Employees Retirement System opened a new position in T. Rowe Price Group, buying 11,100 shares worth about $1.0 million in the first quarter.
• T. Rowe Price reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $2.52 beating estimates and revenue of $1.86 billion edging above forecasts; revenue also rose 5.3% year over year.
• The company paid a quarterly dividend of $1.30, equal to an annualized yield of about 4.4%, while analysts currently maintain a cautious view with a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a target price around $100.54.

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 11,100 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $1,001,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,159,797 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,449,680,000 after acquiring an additional 45,530 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in T. Rowe Price Group by 332.0% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 8,770,071 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $897,880,000 after purchasing an additional 6,740,172 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in T. Rowe Price Group by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,073,846 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $826,600,000 after purchasing an additional 143,109 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,520,858 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $360,465,000 after buying an additional 131,438 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 16.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,443,322 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $352,528,000 after purchasing an additional 476,219 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.39% of the company's stock.

T. Rowe Price Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TROW opened at $118.55 on Friday. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $105.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $100.36. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $85.22 and a 52-week high of $118.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.71, a P/E/G ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 1.47.

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The asset manager reported $2.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.37 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion during 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 business's revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.23 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. will post 9.69 earnings per share for the current year.

T. Rowe Price Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 29th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. T. Rowe Price Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.73%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on TROW shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a "sell" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Evercore lifted their price objective on T. Rowe Price Group from $106.00 to $111.00 in a report on Monday, June 8th. Zacks Research raised T. Rowe Price Group from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $98.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $105.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, T. Rowe Price Group has an average rating of "Reduce" and a consensus price target of $100.54.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other T. Rowe Price Group news, VP Stephon A. Jackson sold 3,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.56, for a total transaction of $307,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 83,883 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,603,040.48. The trade was a 3.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

T. Rowe Price Group 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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