MFOHome About Commentary Discussions Funds The Best Resources Support Us!

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register

Categories

In this Discussion

Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.

    Support MFO

  • Donate through PayPal

Are asset managers (like T Rowe Price, BlackRock, Invesco) attractive buys now?

hank
edited October 5 in Other Investing
This week’s Barron’s has an interesting article recommending an investment in asset managers. Three mentioned favorably: T. Rowe Price, Blackrock, Invesco, each for different reasons. With Invesco they like that about half of its offerings now are popular ETFs. For Blackrock it’s the continuing growth of AUM and high quality of management.

What they say about T Rowe Price: T. Rowe may be the deepest value and riskiest bet. At just 11 times forward earnings, it’s one of the cheapest fund managers on the market. It’s cheap for a reason: Assets keep draining away. The company reported $24 billion in net outflows in the first half of 2025 after seeing $43 billion depart in 2024.

My question: While all of the above may be true, wouldn’t the stocks of these three firms (and asset managers in general) fall sharply if the equity markets entered a prolongued (year+ long) downturn owing to the market generated loss of AUM? And, in such a scenario wouldn’t those firms (like the 3 mentioned) heavily invested in retail fund flows suffer the most? I recall trying to play Invesco during the ‘22 downturn and it didn’t go well. Your thoughts?


(Article caption: “The fund industry faces big hurdles, but these three asset managers have been unjustly dismissed.)”

Comments

  • Derf
    @hank : Just a guess, thinking for long term holders?
    P.S. I didn't read the article.
  • hank
    edited October 5
    Derf said:

    @hank : Just a guess, thinking for long term holders?
    P.S. I didn't read the article.

    Not sure reading the article would help much with my question. I’m interested in what happens to these types of stocks if the markets enter a steep downturn? Barron’s does not address that.. There was a thread here about TROW (with a caption like ”Buy TROW instead of its funds?”) 5-6 years ago. How’d that go?

    @Derf raises an interesting secondary question. When you buy a stock, how long do you intend to hold it? Buffett might say forever. Doubt many of us have that degree of patience. I only buy individual stocks when the price is already depressed. But if it turns south early on I’m likely to sell. That would have been the right thing to do with TROW 5 years ago.

    (TROW stock price: - 27.4% over 5 years)

    PS - Here’s an interesting discussion I ran across today.
  • CrashCrash
    TROW doesn't deserve anyone's money, these days. Seems to me from what I've seen lately, Schwab is a better bet. I'm talking as an investment, not as a client--- although Chucky has not been bad at all, once I uncovered and unearthed the ordinary, common stuff any client might need on their website. Stuff that should be out in the open and obvious. It's all hidden. Geniuses in charge, everywhere.
  • masterd
    Read the Barron’s article and would not buy any of the three. TROW is a crap show. The company is poorly managed and their best days are in the rear view mirror. I would buy BLK, but only at a lower entry price.
  • hank
    edited October 5
    masterd said:

    Read the Barron’s article and would not buy any of the three. TROW is a crap show. The company is poorly managed and their best days are in the rear view mirror. I would buy BLK, but only at a lower entry price.

    Thanks. I agree, although TRP might be a short-term value play at some point. I actually have another less well known firm in mind, but not in the habit of sharing stocks I’m thinking of buying. Those with “deep pockets” like FD might front-run me. :)

    TROW was slow to pick up on the ETF craze. They once had an arsenal of solid actively managed funds. As I ponder what happened: (1) Did the poor customer service cause investors to flee? Or was it the other way around? (2) Did their early failure to compete on the ETF front force them to cut costs on the service end? I tend to think the latter, though it served them poorly.
Sign In or Register to comment.