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Albert Kim
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Brian Wasson
Jessica Wolfe
1. Name of Company
The name of the company is T. Rowe Price. The company was founded in 1937 by Thomas Rowe Price,
Jr. He set out to create an organization “with a reputation for the highest character and the soundest
investment philosophy.” The company is based in Baltimore, MD with offices in 14 countries around the
world and over 6,300 employees. T. Rowe Price is a publicly owned investment manager that invests in
public equity and fixed income markets. The firm is known for its active investments and bottom up
approach. As of 2017, T. Rowe Price has $811 billion in assets under management.
T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. is a financial services holding company and their principal industry is
investment services. The firm offers investment management services for personal investors and
institutional investors. Personal investor offerings include mutual funds, target date funds, college savings
plans, advisory planning services, select client services and private asset management. T. Rowe Price also
Based on an interview our team conducted with David Sereno, a Corporate Manager from T. Rowe Price,
we found that the principal competitors of the firm range from public to private companies. In regards to
the size of T. Rowe Price, it’s biggest competitors are Franklin Resources, Legg Mason, and Invesco.
Some of its others competitors are Goldman Sachs, Oppenheimer Holdings, and BlackRock, Inc.
4. Identify the CORE COMPETENCIES of the firm. Is this industry stable, expanding or
contracting?
The core competency of this firm is active investing. Active investing is an approach that requires a
portfolio manager and a team of analysts to beat the stock market. Active investment is also much more
expensive than passive due to the costs of management. Most firms are choosing passive investment
strategies over active investment strategies so that they will not have to constantly analyze the market and
therefore, they do not need to employ as many people. Firms are also choosing passive over active
because the high risk of active investing outweighs the benefits for some investors, as it costs a lot more
to manage than a passively invested portfolio. According to Thomson Reuters Lipper, it is estimated that
the average expense ratio for an actively managed fund is 1.4% and 0.6% for an average passively
managed fund. This is because of the consistent transaction fees and portfolio manager fees that come
along with active trading, as well as the cost to obtain the necessary information on a potential
5. List the market share of the Company and each of the primary competitors
Invesco 1.7%
The financial services industry, which encompasses multiple subsectors including banking, asset
management, insurance, venture capital, and private equity, represents one of the United States most
significant sectors of the economy. According to the Financial Services Spotlight Report produced by the
U.S. government, in 2016, financial services and insurance represented 7.3% or $1.4 trillion of the U.S.
gross domestic product. In 2015 alone, the United States exported $119.6 billion in financial and
insurance services around the world. Unlike may other aspects of the U.S. economy, which have
historically experienced global trade deficits, financial services and insurance have produced a $46.7
T. Rowe’s Gross revenue as of September 30, 2017 is $4,598,100,000. This is nearly a 10% increase from
T. Rowe Price’s gross profit margin has generally remained in the same percentage range in the past few
years. Oppenheimer Holdings and Goldman Sachs are the two competitors that are out performing T.
Rowe Price. However, if you put into consideration the revenue that remains after expenses are deducted
or net profit margin, T. Rowe Price is doing much better than both Oppenheimer and Goldman Sachs.
9. Trending: Chart the Company’s revenue, profits and stock price for the last reported 2-3 years.
Over the past few years, as the United States economy has continued to rebound, T. Rowe Price’s
revenue has followed a steady upward trend. At the end of 2014, the company’s revenues were
$3,982,100,000 and as of September 30, 2017, their revenue has grown to $4,598,100,000, representing a
roughly 15% growth rate over the past 2-3 years. The revenue generated from this year, as of September
30, has already exceeded the total revenue from 2016 by almost $400 million.
Despite increased revenue year after year, T. Rowe Price’s profits decreased by close to 45
million dollars in 2015 from 2014. During the same time in parallel fashion, T. Rowe’s stock price
dropped $14.37 per share to $71.49. However, following 2015, the company's profits have rebounded
along with the stock price for year after year growth. As of December 1, 2017, T. Rowe’s stock price
surpassed the triple digit mark and is valued at $102.79 per share demonstrating that investors continue to
feel confident that T. Rowe price is still a solid investment with more growth potential.
(As of 9/30/17)
(as of 12/01/17)
The picture below is the general recommendation stock analysts have of T. Rowe Price common stocks.
The graph above was taken from NASDAQ.com to demonstrate the increase in T.Rowe Price stock
prices. During the course of the year, the price has increased significantly from $74.84 on January 3, 2017
months.
The Chief Investment Officer and Equity Income Manager, Brian Rogers, retired on March 31st
of 2017 after 35 years with T. Rowe Price. As a result of his retirement, T. Rowe has appointed not one,
but six senior investment leaders to take his position as Chief Investment Officer. Going from having one
CIO to 6 CIOs is a huge strategic change. The firm believes that the “multiple CIO structure reflects the
growing complexities of the global financial markets, the evolution of the firm to be larger and more
global, and our desire to foster a construct that continues to emphasize collaboration and information
sharing.” However, our biggest concern lies with the new Equity Income Manager. After having Brian
Rogers as the Equity Income Manager for 30 years, investors became concerned about whether or not the
new manager, John Linehan, would perform just as well as Rogers did in a long term time frame. A
variety of articles in the Business Source Premier database recommended that investors pull their funds
out of T. Rowe Price Equity Income because of the change in managers. After years of being included on
this list, T. Rowe Price Equity Income Fund was removed also from Money 50, a list of the world’s best
and most recommended funds by Money magazine. This decline in investor confidence was a direct result
of Linehan replacing Rogers. It is imperative that the firm consistently improves their performance in
equity income funds in order to assure investors that the effectiveness of the portfolios have not changed
even though management has. T. Rowe Price is known for active investing, which is a method that relies
heavily on the performance of analysts and portfolio managers. It is extremely crucial that John Linehan
performs well because of the active nature of the investments. With investors already cautious and
doubtful about the change in management, they are more likely to take out their assets from T. Rowe
Price and go to a competitor firm if they see a decline in their portfolio. It is crucial to the firm that
Linehan builds a record of positive performance to gain confidence from investors because a large portion
of T. Rowe Price’s assets under management is for equity income. In 2016, Equity assets made up over
50% or $450.6 billion of the firm’s total $810.8 billion assets under management. The firm relies also
heavily on equity income funds because of the fees it generates revenue from. If the performance of
Linehan causes investors to remove their assets from T. Rowe Price, the firm will suffer tremendously. It
is strategically imperative that John Linehan builds a reputation of good performance to retain clients and
Another strategic imperative crucial to the survival of T. Rowe Price is addressing the threats of
cyber security. T. Rowe Price has recently developed an online investment manager called ActivePlus
Portfolios. This new program will attract investors for its convenience and digital accessibility but with
the use of anything online, there is a cyber security threat. Investors are putting thousands of dollars into
this system and they trust their online portfolio managers with personal, confidential information. Without
rigorous security measures, T. Rowe leaves their clients vulnerable to data theft and transactions
performed by hackers. T. Rowe Price needs to be diligent and implement strict cyber security measures to
ensure that their client’s data cannot be hacked. As technology improves, the threat of data theft and
illegal transactions also increases. It is extremely crucial for T. Rowe Price to stay ahead of the game and
implement cyber security measures in order to to protect their clients and their reputation. A recent
computer “glitch” related to litigation against Dell caused T. Rowe Price to have to pay their clients $194
million of its own money. T. Rowe Price had to pay five times more than what they would have won in
the litigation had the glitch not occurred. The firm has already experienced what the heavy consequences
are like when there are technology errors occur. Technology has the capability to hurt a company
financially and cause significant damage to their reputation in the industry without proper security
measures.
Most firms in the investment industry grow through acquisitions and mergers. T. Rowe Price has
always stressed the desire to “grow organically” instead of pursuing mergers and acquisitions like its
competitors. During the next few years, it is inevitable that T. Rowe’s competitors will grow rapidly by
combining with each other while T. Rowe still remains the original company that was founded years ago.
As its competitors become larger, they will have more products and services to offer their clients, making
them a more attractive firm than T. Rowe Price. It is strategically imperative for T. Rowe Price to find
ways to grow larger “organically” by expanding their capabilities, services and products to match the
demand of investors. Alternatively, T. Rowe Price could continue to specialize in their core competency
of active investing, and then gradually begin to add different services. If the firm can milk as much out of
this service as they can and it gets enough investors to back it, then it could continue to retain those
earnings from the common stock that they have and use it in the future. According to Yahoo finance, T.
Rowe Price has retained about 4 billion a year from 2014-2016. With the proper funds, it will only make
it easier for it to reach its financial goals and future plans for expansion.
11. Identify any ethical issues for your firm relative to business decision making and the impact on
multiple stakeholders
In 2016, a group of investors in T. Rowe Price mutual funds accused the firm of charging
excessive fees of about $388 million. T. Rowe Price was accused of charging up to 69% more in
management fees on its Blue Chip Growth Fund than what it charges as a sub adviser on similar funds for
other asset managers. The complaint said, “T. Rowe Price breached its fiduciary duty by receiving
investment management fees from each fund that are so disproportionately large that they bear no
reasonable relationship to the value of the services provided.” This case demonstrates that there is an
ethical issue T. Rowe will have to deal with to retain clients and attract new clients. T. Rowe Price’s
management fees are unreasonably high. The company increased its fees as its total assets under
management increased. The service is still unchanged but the amount that is being charged to investors
has increased. The ethical issue is that the firm wants to earn a profit but at the same time, they may be
losing clients that do not want to pay their management fee. Earlier in 2017, the firm cut fees on its
mutual funds by five basis points or .05% and their shares fell 4.8% that day.
Another lawsuit against T. Rowe Price was made by David G. Feinberg, a member of its U.S.
Retirement Program, in 2017. According to his complaint, T. Rowe Price focused on the economic
interest of itself and its affiliates over their employees in saving for retirement. He said that the firm did
this by only offering T. Rowe Price’s own in-house investment funds in its 401(k) plan, which benefited
its affiliates T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. and T. Rowe Price Trust Company. Feinberg claimed that,
“the defendants failed to loyally and prudently monitor the fees and performance of 401(k) options, and
simply retained the in-house funds to enrich T. Rowe Price.” Additional claims made were that the
defendants frequently offered higher cost retail versions of their mutual funds in its 401(k) plan to their
employees than to their own clients, when there were cheaper options available, and that it offered
investment management services for some of their collective investment trusts and institutional mutual
funds to customers as a sub advisor for less cost than the charged plan. The lawsuit claimed that because
of T. Rowe Price’s negligence, 401(k) plan participants lost out on millions of dollars in retirement
savings, had funds been selected regardless of their affiliation. The ethical question here is how credible
of a company does T. Rowe Price want to be. With this lawsuit and the one mentioned above, people may
stray away from T. Rowe Price because the lawsuits give off the notion that T. Rowe Price is only
concerned with itself, and not its clients or its employees. People need to know that they can confide their
trust in a firm who is looking to help them achieve their financial goals. The firm needs to figure out a
way to fix the image it has created for itself because it will lose customers and employees if it continues
As an investment firm, T. Rowe Price is directly impacted by the economy and although the
current economic condition is expansion, a recession is inevitable. The daily business environment of T.
Rowe Price will suffer during a recession because of people being laid off. Laying off employees is the
most common strategy for business executives to control the costs incurred in the business. During the
last recession of 2008, T. Rowe Price laid off 288 employees, more than 10% of their total number of
employees. For T. Rowe Price, laying off people is an ethical issue that hurts their employees,
shareholders and their clients. Their clients have portfolios that are managed by an active portfolio
manager who relies on the information given from a team analysts constantly. If the firm lays off
employees, the performance of each client’s portfolio could potentially suffer because there are not
T. Rowe Price is an investment firm known for using active investing techniques over passive
investing. Only 5% of T. Rowe Price’s assets use passive strategies while a majority of T. Rowe’s
competitors use passive investing for a majority of their investments. Competitors that use passive
investment techniques, such as BlackRock Inc., are choosing to let go of their employees and replace the
work they do with computers. As technology improves and more people are choosing to put their money
into passive investments, there is a huge ethical issue that T. Rowe Price could face of whether or not they
need to keep up with their competitors and change their techniques.. In 2016, $263 billion flowed out of
active investments in the industry, causing worry for active investment managers. If T. Rowe Price
deviates from their reputation of being an active investment firm, they may lose clients who prefer to have
a more personable investment manager instead of a machine. The investment industry is also known for
mergers and acquisitions because that is how most companies grow. T. Rowe will experience a decrease
in their market share, while its competitors increase their market share and assets under management. As
a result, T. Rowe Price may consider consolidating with another investment firm, but that would cause
problems with integration because it could potentially alter how they have done business since being
founded. In February, T. Rowe Price acquired Henderson High yield Opportunities Fund, which was an
unusual business decision for the firm that stresses “organic” growth.
12. Based on the Team’s research and analysis, what strategies would your team recommend to the
Based on our team’s research and analysis, we have a few strategies that we would recommend
that involve expanding T. Rowe’s capabilities to serve a greater market of investors and consumers. Our
first strategy addresses the need to incorporate passive investments into the firm’s core competencies and
our second strategy solves the commonly raised issue of high fees charged to investors. The last strategy
involves expansion of their newly developed online portfolio manager, ActivePlus Portfolios.
In early 2017, nearly $500 billion flowed out of active investments and into passive investments.
As shown in the graph above taken from Bloomberg, there is an increasing trend towards passive
investments and out of active investments. Competitor BlackRock Inc has already responded to this
change by shifting their approach to passive investments. The problem is that T. Rowe Price has long
been utilizing active investments and they have yet to expand their core competencies to include passive
investments. T. Rowe needs to expand their capabilities to active investing, passive investing, and a
hybrid combination of passive and active. Based on risk tolerance, time horizon and a multitude of
factors, every investor is different and active management is not the right investment for some investors.
There are investors who can afford to pay the fees required to maintain that style of management but there
are also investors who do not want to pay those fees. Potential gains from active management are
unlimited, but the results are never as profitable as expected. Luciano Siracusano from WisdomTree said,
“Numerous studies confirm that, over time, the vast majority of actively managed mutual funds have
failed to outperform comparable cap weighted indices, after accounting for fees, expenses and transaction
costs.” Passive management does not cost either party much and it could be a great way for it to expand
into a larger market of clients. It is worth noting that throughout financial history, active and passive
management techniques have been equally successful. Based on a study conducted by Hartford Funds,
between the years 1990 and 2016, active management was more profitable 50 % of the time and passive
management was profitable 50% of the time. Regardless of what technique the average investor uses,
their chances of earning a profit are based primarily on the market, which should always be observed
before any type of investment is made. Another study conducted last year by CNBC interviewed
investors to see what kind of investment strategy they would prefer, between active management, passive
management, and a mix between the two. 60% of investors noted that they would prefer a mix of the two,
while 30% preferred a passive approach and 8% were partial to an active approach in the current market.
T. Rowe Price needs to develop a hybrid technique, combining the characteristics of passive and active
investing. The approach could start with passive investment strategies as investors become familiar with
the market. As time goes on and the amount of assets increases, the client desires a more active approach
they choose to invest. This strategy will bring in more market segments and increase the total assets under
T. Rowe Price needs to lower their management fees and lower their minimum requirements. One
of the main reasons that investors choose passive investments over active is the cost. In a Bloomberg
article written by Charles Stein, he said, “Even if an active fund produced somewhat better returns, over
time the cost savings of the passive approach would outweigh that difference in performance.” Having a
portfolio manager that uses active investing is very beneficial to an investor because the idea is that the
skilled managers can deliver impressive returns that beat the market. However, most investors choose
passive because of the high costs of portfolio management and advisory fees, which means that T. Rowe
is losing clients to its competitors. On average, investors give up 40% of their investment return for
portfolio management and advice. For example, T. Rowe Price charges $19.95 for an online trade with a
minimum deposit of $2,500 while companies like Merrill Edge only charge $6.95 a trade with no
minimum deposit amount. Investors want to minimize fees, maximize their returns and they want to
Our team also recommends that T. Rowe Price invest time and efforts in improving and
expanding the capabilities of their new digital investment advisory program, ActivePlus Portfolios. The
new program has allowed the company to service their clients more efficiently and conveniently. As
technology progresses, the demand for banking and investing through apps increases. If companies are to
satisfy their current clients and gain more clients, they need to offer the technological convenience that is
in high demand. Right now, it is crucial that T. Rowe continues to expand their capabilities to service
clients online and through apps. Currently, the account minimum is $50,000 and the only accounts that
are supported by this program are individual retirement accounts. If T. Rowe Price wants to increase its
assets under management, they need to change their requirements and capabilities so that a larger market
of investors will be attracted to their products. Two thirds of T. Rowe Price’s assets are in retirement
accounts. However, once those clients take money out of their accounts and no longer need T. Rowe
Price, the amount of assets under management will decrease fairly quickly. T. Rowe Price needs to focus
on being a company that can service younger investors such as Millennials and Generation X’s.
13. Sources and References: List all sources, both primary and secondary, used in the research.
This should include websites, periodicals, newspapers, annual reports, SEC 10K reports, industry
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