Who Owns T. Rowe Price?

Thomas Rowe Price Jr. founded the firm in Baltimore in 1937, after leaving a brokerage career frustrated by commission-driven advice that served the broker rather than the client. His founding idea was a firm paid through a fee on assets managed, aligning its interests with investors' outcomes, an alignment he articulated in a 1937 mission statement that still shapes the company.

Price pioneered growth stock investing, the discipline of buying companies with strong earnings growth prospects and holding them for the long term, a style he helped formalize and that became the firm's signature. His "growth stock" philosophy influenced a generation of investors, and the firm's mutual funds, built around that approach, attracted clients through the mid-twentieth century.

The firm went public in 1986, an unusual IPO that kept it independent while creating employee liquidity. It built its retirement business through the 1990s and 2000s, becoming a dominant 401(k) recordkeeper and the leading provider of target-date funds, products that automatically shift asset allocation as investors approach retirement.

The modern challenge is the industry's shift to passive investing. Net outflows have persisted for years as clients move to cheaper index products, with $56.9 billion in outflows in 2025 even as market appreciation lifted AUM to $1.78 trillion by year-end and $1.86 trillion by Q3 2026. The firm has responded by expanding ETFs, alternatives, and its retirement franchise, growing its ETF business to over $21 billion and sustaining fixed income inflows for eight consecutive quarters through 2025. FY2025 revenue was $7.31 billion with net income of $2.09 billion, and adjusted diluted EPS reached $9.72.