Westpac Banking Corp Buys 47,341 Shares of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. $TROW

Westpac Banking Corp increased its position in shares of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) by 5,517.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 48,199 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 47,341 shares during the quarter. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in T. Rowe Price Group were worth $4,947,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in TROW. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 0.5% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,416,718 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,549,213,000 after purchasing an additional 130,325 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,510,271 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,400,241,000 after buying an additional 211,647 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in T. Rowe Price Group by 1.8% in the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,846,636 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $757,200,000 after purchasing an additional 140,385 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in T. Rowe Price Group by 3.4% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,014,236 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $578,059,000 after acquiring an additional 197,024 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in T. Rowe Price Group by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,444,720 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $332,415,000 after purchasing an additional 11,036 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.39% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on TROW shares. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $85.00 to $86.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $109.00 to $97.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Evercore reduced their target price on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $116.00 to $106.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on T. Rowe Price Group from $123.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on T. Rowe Price Group from $110.00 to $104.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $102.23.

T. Rowe Price Group Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:TROW opened at $95.27 on Thursday. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $77.85 and a 52-week high of $118.22. The company has a market capitalization of $20.78 billion, a PE ratio of 10.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.89 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a fifty day moving average of $101.82 and a 200-day moving average of $103.47.

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The asset manager reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.47 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.12 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. will post 9.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

T. Rowe Price Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th will be given a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.5%. This is a boost from T. Rowe Price Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. T. Rowe Price Group’s dividend payout ratio is 54.92%.

Insider Transactions at T. Rowe Price Group

In other T. Rowe Price Group news, VP Arif Husain sold 4,260 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.96, for a total value of $434,349.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 47,102 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,802,519.92. This represents a 8.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

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.