T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) Given New $125.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) had its price target increased by Morgan Stanley from $114.00 to $125.00 in a report published on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the asset manager’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on TROW. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of T. Rowe Price Group from an underperform rating to a market perform rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $106.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. StockNews.com cut shares of T. Rowe Price Group from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on T. Rowe Price Group from $94.00 to $103.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a research report on Tuesday. UBS Group increased their price objective on T. Rowe Price Group from $100.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a sell rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have given a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $112.67.

T. Rowe Price Group Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ TROW opened at $111.39 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $114.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $106.69. T. Rowe Price Group has a 1-year low of $87.43 and a 1-year high of $132.76. The firm has a market cap of $24.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.40.

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The asset manager reported $1.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.12. T. Rowe Price Group had a return on equity of 18.41% and a net margin of 27.69%. The company had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.74 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that T. Rowe Price Group will post 8.13 EPS for the current year.

T. Rowe Price Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $1.24 dividend. This is a positive change from T. Rowe Price Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.22. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $4.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.45%. T. Rowe Price Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 63.92%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Freeman A. Hrabowski III sold 8,740 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,073 shares in the company, valued at $2,493,357.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other T. Rowe Price Group news, Director Freeman A. Hrabowski III sold 8,740 shares of T. Rowe Price Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.32, for a total transaction of $1,034,116.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 21,073 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,493,357.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jessica M. Hiebler sold 1,138 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total value of $121,913.94. Following the transaction, the insider now 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.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On T. Rowe Price Group

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TROW. Norges Bank purchased a new position in T. Rowe Price Group in the 4th quarter worth $208,014,000. Confluence Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of T. Rowe Price Group in the first quarter worth about $130,386,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 8,968.6% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 902,146 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $97,152,000 after acquiring an additional 892,198 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in T. Rowe Price Group by 473.3% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 975,226 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $105,022,000 after acquiring an additional 805,106 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in T. Rowe Price Group by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,183,563 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,051,553,000 after acquiring an additional 625,340 shares during the period. 73.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

T. Rowe Price Group Company 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.