The shareholders of
T. Rowe Price Group Inc.
(
TROW
) now have a reason to applaud. The company has recently declared
a special cash dividend of $1.00 per share, which will be paid on
December 28, 2012 to stockholders of record as of December
17.
With this special dividend, T. Rowe Price joins the bandwagon
of companies declaring special dividends in the recent past. This
comes as a result of probable increase in tax on dividends next
year.
T. Rowe Price is committed to return value to shareholders
with its strong cash generation capabilities. Following this
special cash dividend, the company will continue to maintain a
solid balance sheet with no corporate debt as well as cash and
mutual fund investment holdings of around $2 billion.
As a matte of fact, in February 2012, T. Rowe Price's Board of
Directors approved a 10.0% hike in its quarterly common stock
dividend. The revised quarterly dividend now stands at 34 cents
per share compared with the previous amount of 31 cents per
share. This marked T. Rowe's 26th consecutive annual dividend
increase.
Baltimore-based global investment management organization, T.
Rowe Price had $574.4 billion in assets under management (AUM) as
of September 30, 2012. We believe that the company has the
potential to take advantage of the economic recovery and benefit
from the growth opportunities in the domestic and global AUM.
Yet, competitive pressures amid economic headwinds remain the
major causes of concern.
Recently,
Franklin Resources Inc.
(
BEN
) announced a special cash dividend of $3.00 per share for its
shareholders. This dividend will be paid on December 20, 2012 to
shareholders of record as of December 6.
Among others, California-based
City National Corporation
(
CYN
) announced a special cash dividend of 25 cents per share, which
will be paid on December 18, 2012 to stockholders of record as on
December 3.
T. Rowe Price currently retains a Zacks #2 Rank, which
translates into a short-term Buy rating. We believe the
announcement of special dividend will be an appropriate step for
the company to enhance shareholders' confidence, which might lead
to positive estimate revisions in the near term. This, in turn,
could cause an improvement in the Zacks Rank.
FRANKLIN RESOUR (BEN): Free Stock Analysis
Report
CITY NATIONAL (CYN): Free Stock Analysis
Report
T ROWE PRICE (TROW): Free Stock Analysis
Report
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