T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. $TROW Position Increased by Ghe LLC

Key Points

• Ghe LLC increased its stake in T. Rowe Price Group by 60.1% in the first quarter, buying 11,308 more shares and bringing its total holding to 30,116 shares valued at about $2.7 million.
• Wall Street remains cautious on TROW, with analysts mostly rating the stock Hold and the consensus target price around $101.83, even as some firms recently raised their price targets.
• The company posted solid results and pays a sizable dividend: Q1 earnings came in above expectations at $2.52 per share, revenue rose 5.3% year over year, and the quarterly dividend of $1.30 implies an annual yield of 4.4%.

Ghe LLC boosted its stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW - Free Report) by 60.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 30,116 shares of the asset manager's stock after purchasing an additional 11,308 shares during the quarter. T. Rowe Price Group makes up approximately 0.6% of Ghe LLC's holdings, making the stock its 18th largest position. Ghe LLC's holdings in T. Rowe Price Group were worth $2,715,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on TROW. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $105.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $107.00 to $91.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on T. Rowe Price Group from $93.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target 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. Finally, Evercore set a $121.00 price target on T. Rowe Price Group in a report on Friday. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Reduce" and an average target price of $101.83.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Stephon A. Jackson sold 3,000 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the vice president owned 83,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,603,040.48. This represents a 3.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company's stock.

T. Rowe Price Group Price Performance

Shares of T. Rowe Price Group stock opened at $118.55 on Monday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $107.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $100.85. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $85.22 and a fifty-two week high of $121.17. The firm has a market cap of $25.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.62 and a beta of 1.47.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $2.37 by $0.15. T. Rowe Price Group had a net margin of 28.28% and a return on equity of 20.60%. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.23 earnings per share. T. Rowe Price Group's revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. will post 9.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

T. Rowe Price Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were given a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.4%. 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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