Evolution Advisers Inc. Lowers Holdings in T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW)

Evolution Advisers Inc. decreased its position in T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) by 14.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 698 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 122 shares during the period. Evolution Advisers Inc.’s holdings in T. Rowe Price Group were worth $75,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Simmons Bank raised its stake in T. Rowe Price Group by 23.0% in the third quarter. Simmons Bank now owns 3,503 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $367,000 after buying an additional 656 shares in the last quarter. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP raised its stake in T. Rowe Price Group by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP now owns 158,875 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $17,109,000 after buying an additional 8,773 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in T. Rowe Price Group by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 317,349 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $34,299,000 after buying an additional 10,680 shares in the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC raised its stake in T. Rowe Price Group by 48.8% in the fourth quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 280,552 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,213,000 after buying an additional 92,059 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cullen Investment Group LTD. bought a new position in T. Rowe Price Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $953,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.39% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen raised T. Rowe Price Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $92.00 to $114.00 in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on T. Rowe Price Group from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on T. Rowe Price Group from $114.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. StockNews.com downgraded T. Rowe Price Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $110.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $112.67.

T. Rowe Price Group Price Performance

NASDAQ:TROW traded down $2.23 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $108.83. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,161,391 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,424,685. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $87.43 and a 1 year high of $132.76. The stock has a market cap of $24.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.02, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.40. The business’s fifty day moving average is $115.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $107.00.

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The asset manager reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.12. T. Rowe Price Group had a net margin of 27.69% and a return on equity of 18.41%. The company had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.74 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. will post 8.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

T. Rowe Price Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $1.24 per share. This is a positive change from T. Rowe Price Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.22. This represents a $4.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.56%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. T. Rowe Price Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 63.92%.

Insider Transactions at T. Rowe Price Group

In other news, Director Freeman A. Hrabowski III sold 8,740 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.32, for a total transaction of $1,034,116.80. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 21,073 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,493,357.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, Director Freeman A. Hrabowski III sold 8,740 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.32, for a total value of $1,034,116.80. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,073 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,493,357.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jessica M. Hiebler sold 1,138 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total transaction of $121,913.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 14,113 shares in the company, valued at $1,511,925.69. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

T. Rowe Price Group Profile

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.