Insider Selling: T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) VP Sells 3,000 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• T. Rowe Price Group VP Stephon Jackson sold 3,000 shares on May 13 at an average price of $102.56, totaling about $307,680 and reducing his ownership by 3.45%.
• The stock was little changed after the disclosure, trading down 0.2% to $102.83, while remaining above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.
• The company recently beat quarterly earnings expectations and continues to pay a sizable dividend, reporting $2.52 EPS versus $2.37 expected and declaring a $1.30 quarterly dividend, or $5.20 annually for a 5.1% yield.

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW - Get Free Report) VP Stephon Jackson sold 3,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 13th. The stock was 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. The trade was a 3.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

T. Rowe Price Group Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:TROW traded down $0.18 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $102.83. 669,730 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,269,514. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $94.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $99.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.50 and a beta of 1.51. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $85.22 and a 12 month high of $118.22.

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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.37 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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 revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.23 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. will post 9.61 earnings per share for the current year.

T. Rowe Price Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. T. Rowe Price Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.73%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on TROW. Argus raised T. Rowe Price Group to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets upped 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 research report on Monday, May 4th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of T. Rowe Price Group in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of T. Rowe Price Group from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus target price of $99.54.

Institutional Trading of T. Rowe Price Group

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Essex Bank lifted its stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Essex Bank now owns 2,914 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $299,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund boosted its stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 0.4% during the first quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 25,062 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $2,259,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. PFG Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 4.8% in the third quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 2,249 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $231,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. MTM Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. MTM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,167 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $324,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the period. Finally, GenTrust LLC raised its holdings in T. Rowe Price Group by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. GenTrust LLC now owns 2,114 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $216,000 after buying an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. 73.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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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