Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. Sells 15,671 Shares of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. $TROW

Key Points

• Nomura Asset Management trimmed its T. Rowe Price Group stake by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, selling 15,671 shares and ending with 429,060 shares valued at about $43.9 million.
• Analyst sentiment remains cautious: most analysts rate TROW as Hold or Sell, with a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $99.54, below the stock’s recent trading level.
• T. Rowe Price reported solid quarterly results and a dividend increase, beating EPS estimates and declaring a $1.30 quarterly dividend, which implies a 5.0% annualized yield.

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. decreased its position in T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW - Free Report) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 429,060 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 15,671 shares during the quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. owned approximately 0.20% of T. Rowe Price Group worth $43,927,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in TROW. Norges Bank bought a new position in T. Rowe Price Group in the fourth quarter worth $128,283,000. PFA Pension Forsikringsaktieselskab purchased a new stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group in the fourth quarter worth $61,073,000. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec grew its stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 81.0% in the third quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec now owns 1,306,922 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $134,142,000 after acquiring an additional 584,949 shares during the last quarter. Anchyra Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group in the fourth quarter worth $48,012,000. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group in the third quarter worth $34,034,000. Institutional investors own 73.39% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on TROW shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c)" rating on shares of T. Rowe Price Group in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley set a $105.00 target price on T. Rowe Price Group in a research note on Monday, April 27th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $98.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $85.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $95.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Eleven equities research 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 has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus target price of $99.54.

T. Rowe Price Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:TROW opened at $104.53 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $22.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.20, a PEG ratio of 5.35 and a beta of 1.50. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $85.22 and a 1 year high of $118.22. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $97.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $99.22.

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The asset manager reported $2.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.37 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.23 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. will post 9.63 earnings per share for the current year.

T. Rowe Price Group Announces Dividend

The firm 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 dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. T. Rowe Price Group's dividend payout ratio is presently 55.73%.

Insider Activity

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

About T. Rowe Price Group

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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