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

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 11th,RTT News reports. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.73%. This is an increase from T. Rowe Price Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.24.

T. Rowe Price Group has increased its dividend by an average of 4.7% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 18 years. T. Rowe Price Group has a dividend payout ratio of 51.5% indicating that 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 %

NASDAQ:TROW opened at $107.31 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $115.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $112.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.84 billion, a PE ratio of 11.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.44. T. Rowe Price Group has a 12-month low of $100.49 and a 12-month high of $125.81.

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) last posted 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 20.91% and a net margin of 29.61%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.72 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that T. Rowe Price Group will post 9.36 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on TROW. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $129.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $113.00 price target (up from $111.00) on shares of T. Rowe Price Group in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $112.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of T. Rowe Price Group from $113.00 to $105.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on T. Rowe Price Group from $115.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $115.09.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other T. Rowe Price Group news, VP Andrew Justin Mackenzi Thomson sold 4,047 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 119,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,749,822.95. This trade represents a 3.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

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.