T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) Short Interest Update

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 10,260,000 shares, a decline of 14.2% from the December 15th total of 11,960,000 shares. Approximately 4.7% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,340,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 7.7 days.

T. Rowe Price Group Stock Performance

Shares of T. Rowe Price Group stock traded up $1.08 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $113.21. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,182,106 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,142,590. T. Rowe Price Group has a twelve month low of $100.49 and a twelve month high of $125.81. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $117.80 and a 200-day moving average of $112.86. The stock has a market cap of $25.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.43.

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The asset manager reported $2.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.21. T. Rowe Price Group had a return on equity of 20.35% and a net margin of 30.35%. The business had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.17 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that T. Rowe Price Group will post 9.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

T. Rowe Price Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a dividend of $1.24 per share. This represents a $4.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.38%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. T. Rowe Price Group’s payout ratio is 54.27%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on TROW shares. Barclays dropped their price target on T. Rowe Price Group from $115.00 to $113.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on T. Rowe Price Group from $129.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $116.00 to $115.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $116.00 to $111.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $124.00 to $118.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have given a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $115.82.

Insider Buying and Selling at T. Rowe Price Group

In related news, VP Andrew Justin Mackenzi Thomson sold 4,047 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.35, for a total transaction of $499,197.45. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 119,577 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,749,822.95. The trade was a 3.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On T. Rowe Price Group

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TROW. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in T. Rowe Price Group during the 2nd quarter worth about $401,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in T. Rowe Price Group by 15.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,611,307 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $185,810,000 after purchasing an additional 220,105 shares during the period. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT increased its holdings in T. Rowe Price Group by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 10,214 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,178,000 after purchasing an additional 310 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. increased its holdings in T. Rowe Price Group by 19.3% during the 2nd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 146,849 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $16,933,000 after purchasing an additional 23,745 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its holdings in T. Rowe Price Group by 36.1% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 31,221 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,600,000 after purchasing an additional 8,283 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.39% of the company’s stock.

About T. Rowe Price Group

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.