T. Rowe Price AUM up 12.4% for quarter, 6.7% for year

T. Rowe Price Group reported assets under management of $1.08 trillion as of March. 31, up 12.4% from three months earlier and up 6.7% from a year earlier, according to the firm's quarterly earnings release Wednesday.

Net inflows for the first quarter were $5.4 billion, compared to net outflows of $8.4 billion in the fourth quarter. In the first quarter of 2018, the firm reported net inflows of $11.3 billion.

By asset class, multiasset strategies experienced the highest net inflows of $3.2 billion during the first quarter, compared to net inflows of $300 million in the fourth quarter and net inflows of $6.4 billion in the prior-year quarter.

Fixed-income strategies and money market funds, which are combined in the report, had $1.5 billion in net inflows in the first quarter vs. net outflows of $1.4 billion the previous quarter and $2.1 billion in net inflows during the three months ended March 31, 2018.

Equity net inflows were $700 million in the first quarter, compared to net outflows of $7.3 billion in the fourth quarter and $2.8 billion in net inflows during the first quarter of last year.

By investment vehicle, T. Rowe Price U.S. mutual funds had net outflows of $1.5 billion, for which client transfers contributed $6.1 billion in outflows. Subadvised and separate accounts had net outflows of $100 million, which included $900 million in outflows from client transfers. Other investment products had $7 billion in net inflows.

The firm's net revenue in the first quarter was $1.33 billion, up 1.7% from the previous quarter and flat from the year-earlier quarter. Net income in the first quarter was $512.6 million, up 45.7% from the fourth quarter and 13% higher than the from the first quarter of 2018.

"The first quarter saw a strong recovery in the markets and investors partially returning from the sidelines after the volatility in December. Against this backdrop, we continued to deliver solid investment performance and financial results," said William J. Stromberg, the company's president and CEO, in a statement in the earnings release.

"We were pleased to see redemption activity decrease relative to the fourth quarter of 2018, as market volatility subsided," Mr. Stromberg said. "Our net flows were diversified, as the firm recorded positive cash flows across all geographies and asset classes."

Separately, the firm is in wait-and-see mode regarding its proposal to the SEC for semi-transparent, active exchange-traded funds, he said.

"Early April saw important news for the industry with the Securities and Exchange Commission preliminarily approving the first semi-transparent exchange-traded fund, potentially giving investors access to active management in an ETF format," Mr. Stromberg said, adding that his firm remains "very engaged with the SEC" on its proposal.