T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) Cut to Strong Sell at Zacks Research

Zacks Research downgraded shares of T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on TROW. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on T. Rowe Price Group from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Argus upgraded T. Rowe Price Group to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of T. Rowe Price Group in a research report on Monday, December 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays set a $94.00 price target on T. Rowe Price Group in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, T. Rowe Price Group presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $97.38.

T. Rowe Price Group Price Performance

TROW stock opened at $95.75 on Tuesday. T. Rowe Price Group has a 12 month low of $82.86 and a 12 month high of $118.22. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $91.79 and its 200 day moving average is $99.55. The company has a market capitalization of $20.84 billion, a PE ratio of 10.35, a P/E/G ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 1.50.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.47 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.92 billion. T. Rowe Price Group had a net margin of 28.53% and a return on equity of 20.29%. T. Rowe Price Group’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.12 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that T. Rowe Price Group will post 9.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

T. Rowe Price Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 30th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th were paid a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.4%. This is a positive change from T. Rowe Price Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. T. Rowe Price Group’s payout ratio is presently 56.22%.

Institutional Trading of T. Rowe Price Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 85.1% during the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 279,200 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $25,167,000 after buying an additional 128,327 shares during the last quarter. Davis Capital Management raised its stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 10.9% during the 1st quarter. Davis Capital Management now owns 3,971 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $358,000 after acquiring an additional 391 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors bought a new position in shares of T. Rowe Price Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $365,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in T. Rowe Price Group by 27.0% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 43,207 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,436,000 after acquiring an additional 9,174 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AG Campbell Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in T. Rowe Price Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $345,000. Institutional investors own 73.39% of the company’s stock.

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.