T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. $TROW Shares Sold by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.

Key Points

• Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group trimmed its T. Rowe Price stake by 2.3% in the first quarter, selling 14,340 shares and ending with 609,677 shares valued at about $55 million.
• T. Rowe Price posted solid quarterly results, with earnings of $2.52 per share and revenue of $1.86 billion, both slightly ahead of analyst expectations. Revenue also rose 5.3% year over year.
• The stock has drawn mixed sentiment: analysts currently have a consensus “Reduce” rating, while the company pays a quarterly dividend of $1.30, or $5.20 annually, for a 4.4% yield.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. cut its position in shares of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW - Free Report) by 2.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 609,677 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 14,340 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned about 0.28% of T. Rowe Price Group worth $54,956,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of TROW. TD Private Client Wealth LLC increased its position in T. Rowe Price Group by 91.8% during the 4th quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 257 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. raised its holdings in T. Rowe Price Group by 540.9% in the fourth quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 282 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 238 shares during the period. Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new position in T. Rowe Price Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Sound Income Strategies LLC lifted its position in 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 valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 189 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DV Equities LLC purchased a new stake in T. Rowe Price Group during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. 73.39% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on TROW. Zacks Research raised shares of T. Rowe Price Group from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $107.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday. Barclays upped their price target on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings raised T. Rowe Price Group from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on T. Rowe Price Group from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus target price of $101.83.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other T. Rowe Price Group news, VP Stephon A. Jackson sold 3,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.56, for a total value 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. This represents a 3.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

T. Rowe Price Group Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of TROW traded up $1.50 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $118.55. 1,785,450 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,199,676. The firm has a market cap of $25.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.71, a P/E/G ratio of 5.98 and a beta of 1.47. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $107.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $100.88. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $85.22 and a 12-month high of $121.17.

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The asset manager reported $2.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.37 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. T. Rowe Price Group had a net margin of 28.28% and a return on equity of 20.60%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.23 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. will post 9.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

T. Rowe Price Group Announces Dividend

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

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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