Shares of T. Rowe Price Group Inc. climbed Thursday after the investment manager said its first-quarter earnings jumped 6 percent even as the stock market struggled.
T. Rowe Price shares rose $6.36, or 11.8 percent, to $60.24. Shares have traded between $43 and $65.46 during the past year.
The Baltimore-based investment manager earned 151.5 million, or 55 cents per share, during the first quarter, a penny short of analysts average estimate, according to Thomson Financial.
But, analysts were encouraged by strong inflows of cash from investors during the quarter. T. Rowe Price posted stronger-than-expected inflows of new cash from customers. Clients poured $9.7 billion into T. Rowe Price during the first quarter.
"Quarter one was one of the worst on record for performance and industry flows in a long time," Wachovia Capital Markets LLC analyst Douglas Sipkin wrote in a research note. "Despite the weakness, T. Rowe Price reported its best flows ever."
Sipkin affirmed his 2008 earnings estimate of $2.50 per share for the company despite it falling short of his first-quarter estimate of 58 cents per share. He rates the stock "Outperform."
Sipkin increased his 2009 estimate by 3 cents to $2.93 per share.
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