Pictet Asset Management Holding SA Sells 17,560 Shares of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. $TROW

Key Points

• Pictet Asset Management trimmed its position in T. Rowe Price by 5.1%, selling 17,560 shares and now holds 328,445 shares (about a 0.15% stake) valued at $33.63 million.
• T. Rowe Price raised its quarterly dividend to $1.30 (annualized $5.20), representing a roughly 5.2% yield and a payout ratio of 56.22%.
• Analyst sentiment has weakened—MarketBeat's consensus is "Reduce" with a $96.46 target after multiple downgrades and price-target cuts—while the company slightly missed EPS ($2.44 vs. $2.47) even as revenue grew 6% year-over-year.

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA trimmed its position in shares of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW - Free Report) by 5.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 328,445 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 17,560 shares during the quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA owned 0.15% of T. Rowe Price Group worth $33,629,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in TROW. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in T. Rowe Price Group by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,529,116 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $259,588,000 after buying an additional 152,451 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,090,249 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $214,557,000 after buying an additional 64,791 shares during the last quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec grew its holdings 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 valued at $134,142,000 after acquiring an additional 584,949 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 5.5% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 873,092 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $89,614,000 after acquiring an additional 45,845 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 24.8% during the third quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 767,672 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $78,794,000 after acquiring an additional 152,318 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.39% of the company's stock.

T. Rowe Price Group Price Performance

Shares of TROW opened at $100.47 on Thursday. 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 $92.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $99.26. The firm has a market cap of $21.86 billion, a PE ratio of 10.86, a PEG ratio of 4.44 and a beta of 1.50.

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The asset manager reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $2.47 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.92 billion. T. Rowe Price Group had a net margin of 28.53% and a return on equity of 20.29%. The company's revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.12 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

T. Rowe Price Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 30th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th were paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.2%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. This is an increase from T. Rowe Price Group's previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. T. Rowe Price Group's dividend payout ratio is currently 56.22%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TROW has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore dropped their price target on T. Rowe Price Group from $99.00 to $96.00 in a report on Friday, April 10th. 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 report on Thursday, February 5th. Zacks Research cut T. Rowe Price Group from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $94.00 to $87.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 17th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $85.00 to $86.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus target price of $96.46.

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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