Should You Buy T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW)?

Is T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) a buy here? The smart money is becoming more confident. The number of long hedge fund bets improved by 3 in recent months.

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc.

In today’s marketplace, there are tons of gauges shareholders can use to track stocks. Two of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best investment managers can outperform the market by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are lots of motivations for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, let’s take a glance at the latest action surrounding T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW).

How have hedgies been trading T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW)?

Heading into 2013, a total of 24 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 14% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, holds the largest position in T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW). Citadel Investment Group has a $48 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with a $31 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedge funds that are bullish include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, John W. Rogers’s Ariel Investments and Tom Gayner’s Markel Gayner Asset Management.

Consequently, some big names were breaking ground themselves. SAC Capital Advisors, managed by Steven Cohen, established the biggest position in T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW). SAC Capital Advisors had 12 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. George Soros’s Soros Fund Management also made a $10 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new TROW investors: Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital, and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW)?

Insider buying is best served when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time period, T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the returns exhibited by the aforementioned research, retail investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) is no exception.

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