Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Raises Holdings in T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. $TROW

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC boosted its holdings in shares of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) by 27.8% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 195,147 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 42,468 shares during the quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC’s holdings in T. Rowe Price Group were worth $20,030,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ameriflex Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 151.8% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriflex Group Inc. now owns 934 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $96,000 after purchasing an additional 563 shares during the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group during the 3rd quarter worth about $226,000. IFG Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. IFG Advisory LLC now owns 31,933 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,278,000 after purchasing an additional 1,934 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in T. Rowe Price Group by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,090,249 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $214,557,000 after buying an additional 64,791 shares during the period. Finally, Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in T. Rowe Price Group by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 66,448 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,820,000 after buying an additional 4,251 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.39% of the company’s stock.

T. Rowe Price Group Stock Down 1.8%

Shares of NASDAQ:TROW opened at $90.40 on Monday. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $77.85 and a fifty-two week high of $118.22. The stock has a market cap of $19.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 1.54. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $100.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $102.77.

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The asset manager reported $2.44 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.12 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. will post 9.29 EPS for the current 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 issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.8%. 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. T. Rowe Price Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.22%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 stock was sold at an average price of $101.96, for a total value of $434,349.60. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 47,102 shares in the company, valued at $4,802,519.92. This trade represents a 8.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on TROW. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $123.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Zacks Research lowered shares of T. Rowe Price Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 9th. Argus raised shares of T. Rowe Price Group to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $115.00 to $110.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on T. Rowe Price Group from $85.00 to $86.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Twelve equities 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.com, T. Rowe Price Group currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $101.69.

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.