GWN Securities Inc. Makes New $234,000 Investment in T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW)

GWN Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,047 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $234,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nilsine Partners LLC increased its holdings in T. Rowe Price Group by 75.5% during the 4th quarter. Nilsine Partners LLC now owns 5,509 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $623,000 after purchasing an additional 2,370 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in T. Rowe Price Group by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 275,978 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,062,000 after purchasing an additional 7,503 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 30.1% in the 4th 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 last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 29,989 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,267,000 after buying an additional 1,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 worth $40,436,000 after buying an additional 20,062 shares during the last quarter. 73.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on TROW. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $113.00 target price (up previously from $111.00) on shares of T. Rowe Price Group in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $118.00 to $116.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $126.00 to $121.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Barclays cut their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $113.00 to $105.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded T. Rowe Price Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, February 2nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $114.09.

T. Rowe Price Group Price Performance

NASDAQ:TROW opened at $94.31 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $21.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.46. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $91.37 and a 1 year high of $125.81. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $107.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $111.57.

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.20 by ($0.08). T. Rowe Price Group had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 29.61%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.72 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. will post 9.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

T. Rowe Price Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $1.27 per share. This represents a $5.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from T. Rowe Price Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.24. T. Rowe Price Group’s dividend payout ratio is 55.46%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Arif Husain sold 4,112 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.27, for a total value of $449,318.24. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 36,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,021,136. This represents a 10.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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.