T. Rowe Price Group on Thursday reported a record $711.4 billion in assets under management as of March 31, up 2.7% from the end of the fourth quarter and up 15% from a year earlier.
Net inflows were $8.8 billion, including $6 billion into the firm's target-date retirement portfolios, the company said in an earnings statement. In the fourth quarter, the company reported overall net inflows of $100 million. Market appreciation and income totaled $10.2 billion for the first quarter.
Mutual fund assets totaled $450.4 billion at the end of the first quarter, up 3.5% from Dec. 31 and up 19.5% from the previous year.
Net income for the quarter came to $304.3 million, up 5.8% from the previous quarter and 25.8% higher than the first quarter of 2013. Net revenue totaled $954.6 million, up 2.7% from three months earlier and up 17% from the previous year.
As of March 31, $129.6 billion was in T. Rowe Price's target-date portfolios — $111.6 billion in target-date funds and $18 billion in target-date trusts. The total target-date AUM was up 6.9% from the fourth quarter and 31.7% higher than the first quarter of 2012.
Christopher Shutler, equity research analyst at William Blair & Co., wrote in a note to clients that his firm still liked T. Rowe Price's stock “as a lower-risk play for long-term investors,” based in part on the firm's “excellent performance,” its position within the retirement channel and William Blair's expectation that the company “will have over $3 billion of cash and liquid … investments by the end of 2014.”
