Ruling won’t hold back T. Rowe Price

Article Excerpt

T. ROWE PRICE GROUP INC. $73 (Nasdaq symbol TROW; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 241.3 million; Market cap: $17.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.1; Dividend yield: 3.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.troweprice.com) sells mutual funds and wealth management services. The U.S. Department of Labor recently decided against delaying new rules that impose a “fiduciary” standard on retirement-investing professionals. That means they must put the interests of their clients ahead of their own, which is more stringent than the current requirement for them to recommend “suitable” products for their clients. Setting up systems to comply with the new standards will increase T. Rowe Price’s costs. Even so, the company should continue to benefit as more baby boomers turn to professional managers for retirement planning. As well, T. Price Rowe has cut the fees on many of its mutual funds. That will help it compete with low-cost ETFs. T. Rowe Price is still a buy. buy…