T. Rowe Price posts profit increase
Q2 earnings are up 84% to $373.9 million from year ago
T. Rowe Price Group Inc. reported a profit of $373.9 million in the second quarter, up 84 percent from the April-to-June period last year.
Earnings at the Baltimore-based investment management company rose to $1.50 per share, up 71 cents compared to the same quarter in 2016. Adjusted to remove what T. Rowe considers noncore operations, per-share earnings were $1.28, beating analyst estimates and boosting the firm’s stock price Tuesday.
“I do think this was a strong quarter,” said President and CEO William J. Stromberg, citing strong sales, earnings growth and investment performance. “Those are all really good milestones for us.”
Four analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research had estimated adjusted per-share earnings of $1.26.
T. Rowe’s stock closed at $83.83 a share, up 3.4 percent in Tuesday trading.
Macrae Sykes, a research analyst for Gabelli & Co., said T. Rowe’s performance is a sign of the firm’s resilience amid ongoing industry pressures, such as a shift among investors to low-fee products and market volatility brought on by political and geopolitical uncertainty.
“What we’re seeing is the more scaled players such as T. Rowe, with solid investment performance, take share,” Sykes said. “The strong are getting stronger.”
Stromberg said T. Rowe is beginning to see the results of investments in new technology and international expansion. Earlier this year, T. Rowe signed agreements to sell its products through no-fee platforms operated by Charles Schwab & Co. and Fidelity, a move that will give T. Rowe more exposure, Stromberg said.
T. Rowe reported second-quarter revenue of $1.2 billion, up 12 percent from $1 billion in the same three months last year.
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