Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Acquires New Shares in T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW)

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 2,108 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $238,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nilsine Partners LLC lifted its position in T. Rowe Price Group by 75.5% in the 4th quarter. Nilsine Partners LLC now owns 5,509 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $623,000 after purchasing an additional 2,370 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 2.8% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 275,978 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $30,062,000 after buying an additional 7,503 shares during the last quarter. Amundi boosted its position in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 30.1% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,717,877 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $194,064,000 after buying an additional 397,278 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its holdings in T. Rowe Price Group by 49.4% in the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 221,579 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $25,229,000 after buying an additional 73,307 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its position in T. Rowe Price Group by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 357,556 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $40,436,000 after acquiring an additional 20,062 shares during the period. 73.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Robert F. Maclellan sold 3,955 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.56, for a total value of $362,119.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 42,979 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,935,157.24. This represents a 8.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Arif Husain sold 4,112 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.27, for a total transaction of $449,318.24. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 36,800 shares in the company, valued at $4,021,136. The trade was a 10.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

T. Rowe Price Group Trading Up 1.4 %

NASDAQ TROW opened at $92.67 on Friday. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $77.85 and a 1 year high of $125.81. The company has a market cap of $20.59 billion, a PE ratio of 10.12, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.50. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $90.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $106.42.

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 2nd. The asset manager reported $2.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.13 by $0.10. T. Rowe Price Group had a net margin of 29.61% and a return on equity of 20.83%. The business had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.80 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.38 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.27 per share. This represents a $5.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.48%. This is a positive change from T. Rowe Price Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.24. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. T. Rowe Price Group’s payout ratio is presently 57.60%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TROW has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen decreased their price target on T. Rowe Price Group from $112.00 to $89.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $116.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Citigroup dropped their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $100.00 to $95.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on T. Rowe Price Group from $94.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, T. Rowe Price Group currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $94.09.

About T. Rowe Price Group

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm provides its services to individuals, institutional investors, retirement plans, financial intermediaries, and institutions. It launches and manages equity and fixed income mutual funds. The firm invests in the public equity and fixed income markets across the globe.