Leave it to T. Rowe Price
The key word there is "relative," since T. Rowe Price didn't grow during the period. Net income fell by 13%, to the per-share equivalent of $0.56. Revenue slid 3% to $554.8 million. However, the results met Wall Street's bottom-line expectations and actually clocked in ahead of what analysts were braced for on top. In this dicey environment, that's good enough for a bunt single.
Between T. Rowe Price's report and last night's encouraging news from Federated Investors
That's no easy feat. T. Rowe Price is managing $345 billion in assets, significantly less than the $400 billion it watched over at the start of the year. The market has taken a deeper dive than that, of course, which is a testament to two things working in T. Rowe Price's favor:
- Cash inflows have slowed, but remain positive, meaning that fund investors are putting in more money than they have been redeeming.
- T. Rowe Price's funds are, on average, smoking the competition. More than half of the company's funds have enviable four- and five-star ratings from fund researcher Morningstar
(NASDAQ:MORN) , compared to about a third of the overall industry's funds. A whopping seven T. Rowe Price funds have made the cut as Champion Funds recommendations.
Naturally, investors will be tested if the market weakness continues. If their mutual-fund statements seem grim after the third quarter, they may get outright panicky if things don't improve before the year-end statements go out.
T. Rowe Price is built to last, though. With a debt-free balance sheet and $1.5 billion in cash and investments, it will outlast weaker players, and possibly snack on one or two. It's already starting taking a few bites of its own stock, having repurchased nearly 4% of its outstanding shares over the past year.
Keep floating, T. Rowe, no matter how hard the market is rocking.