Erste Asset Management GmbH Cuts Stock Position in T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. $TROW

Erste Asset Management GmbH cut its holdings in shares of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 65,100 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 5,638 shares during the quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH’s holdings in T. Rowe Price Group were worth $6,739,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 66.7% in the 2nd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 250 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Essex Bank boosted its stake in T. Rowe Price Group by 3.6% in the third 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. PFG Investments LLC grew its position in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 2,249 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $231,000 after acquiring an additional 102 shares during the period. Beacon Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Beacon Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,256 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $986,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Asset Strategies Inc. increased its stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. now owns 16,994 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,744,000 after purchasing an additional 135 shares during the last quarter. 73.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

T. Rowe Price Group Stock Performance

Shares of TROW opened at $94.63 on Friday. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $77.85 and a 52-week high of $118.22. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $101.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $103.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.98 and a beta of 1.53.

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The asset manager reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.47 by ($0.03). T. Rowe Price Group had a net margin of 28.53% and a return on equity of 20.29%. The company had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.12 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. will post 9.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

T. Rowe Price Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. This is a boost from T. Rowe Price Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.5%. T. Rowe Price Group’s payout ratio is currently 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 firm’s stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $4,802,519.92. This trade represents a 8.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 2.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on TROW. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on T. Rowe Price Group from $110.00 to $104.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Zacks Research lowered T. Rowe Price Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 9th. Bank of America upped their price target on T. Rowe Price Group from $85.00 to $86.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. Evercore cut their price target on T. Rowe Price Group from $116.00 to $106.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered 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 research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, T. Rowe Price Group has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $102.23.

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.