Morgan Stanley Cuts T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) Price Target to $115.00

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) had its target price trimmed by Morgan Stanley from $123.00 to $115.00 in a research note released on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the asset manager’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $108.00 to $106.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $109.00 to $97.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of T. Rowe Price Group in a report on Monday, December 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on T. Rowe Price Group from $115.00 to $110.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on T. Rowe Price Group from $108.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, T. Rowe Price Group currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $102.50.

T. Rowe Price Group Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:TROW opened at $93.16 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $103.66 and a 200 day moving average of $104.12. The stock has a market cap of $20.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.07, a P/E/G ratio of 4.84 and a beta of 1.53. T. Rowe Price Group has a 12 month low of $77.85 and a 12 month high of $118.22.

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The asset manager reported $2.44 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.47 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.92 billion. T. Rowe Price Group had a net margin of 28.53% and a return on equity of 20.36%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.12 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that T. Rowe Price Group will post 9.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

T. Rowe Price Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be paid a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 16th. This is a positive change from T. Rowe Price Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.6%. T. Rowe Price Group’s payout ratio is 54.92%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Arif Husain sold 4,260 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.96, for a total value of $434,349.60. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 47,102 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,802,519.92. This represents a 8.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On T. Rowe Price Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 0.5% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,416,718 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,549,213,000 after acquiring an additional 130,325 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in T. Rowe Price Group by 1.5% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,510,271 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,400,241,000 after purchasing an additional 211,647 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in T. Rowe Price Group by 332.0% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 8,770,071 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $897,880,000 after purchasing an additional 6,740,172 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in T. Rowe Price Group by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,846,636 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $757,200,000 after purchasing an additional 140,385 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,014,236 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $578,059,000 after buying an additional 197,024 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.39% of the company’s stock.

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.