T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) Raises Dividend to $1.27 Per Share

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 11th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 1.27 per share by the asset manager on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $5.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.73%. This is a positive change from T. Rowe Price Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.24.

T. Rowe Price Group has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.7% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 18 years. T. Rowe Price Group has a payout ratio of 51.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect T. Rowe Price Group to earn $9.78 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 50.7%.

T. Rowe Price Group Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:TROW opened at $107.31 on Wednesday. T. Rowe Price Group has a 12-month low of $100.49 and a 12-month high of $125.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.44. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $115.21 and a two-hundred day moving average of $112.48.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.20 by ($0.08). T. Rowe Price Group had a net margin of 29.61% and a return on equity of 20.91%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.72 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that T. Rowe Price Group will post 9.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays dropped their price objective on T. Rowe Price Group from $113.00 to $105.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of 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 raised their price target on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $129.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of 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. Finally, TD Cowen cut their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $120.00 to $116.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $115.09.

Insider Transactions at T. Rowe Price Group

In other T. Rowe Price Group news, VP Andrew Justin Mackenzi Thomson sold 4,047 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.35, for a total value of $499,197.45. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 119,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,749,822.95. This represents a 3.27 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.