Cullen Investment Group LTD. Buys Shares of 8,854 T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW)

Cullen Investment Group LTD. bought a new stake in 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 (SEC). The fund bought 8,854 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $953,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Simmons Bank grew 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 valued at $367,000 after acquiring an additional 656 shares during the period. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $17,109,000 after purchasing an additional 8,773 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $34,299,000 after purchasing an additional 10,680 shares in the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $30,213,000 after purchasing an additional 92,059 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of T. Rowe Price Group by 11.6% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 297,846 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $31,235,000 after purchasing an additional 30,899 shares in the last quarter. 73.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Jessica M. Hiebler sold 1,138 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,511,925.69. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider Jessica M. Hiebler sold 1,138 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,511,925.69. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Freeman A. Hrabowski III sold 8,740 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was 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 $2,493,357.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

T. Rowe Price Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:TROW opened at $114.25 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $25.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.40. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $87.43 and a 1 year high of $132.76. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $114.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $106.61.

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The asset manager reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.74 EPS. T. Rowe Price Group’s revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. will post 8.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

T. Rowe Price Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $1.24 dividend. This represents a $4.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.34%. This is a boost from T. Rowe Price Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.22. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. T. Rowe Price Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 63.92%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded T. Rowe Price Group from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $106.00 to $120.00 in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $101.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $100.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Friday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, T. Rowe Price Group has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $109.56.

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.