5 Top-of-the-Line T. Rowe Price Mutual Funds
T. Rowe Price (TROW) employs more than 600 investment professionals who manage nearly $1.1 trillion for investors in 49 countries. But when you visit the Baltimore headquarters, you still get a feel of the firm as a small, collegial group that enjoys working together.
The secret to T. Rowe Price’s success, in my view, is its sterling corporate culture. This is a company with character. The average investment pro has 22 years of experience; many remain with T. Rowe for their entire careers. All this – plus the products’ above-average long-term returns and below-average expense ratios – makes T. Rowe mutual funds a good choice for investors.
The firm was launched in 1937 by Thomas Rowe Price Jr., who had a novel idea (at the time) that buying growth stocks – those with rising earnings and revenues – could be just as successful as value investing, which was ascendant during the Great Depression that followed the 1929 stock market crash.
The theory was sound, but the timing was awful. The T. Rowe Price investment firm didn’t turn a profit until 1950 – the same year that it launched its first mutual fund, T. Rowe Price Growth Stock (PRGFX). The firm subsequently broadened its scope to include value stocks, foreign stocks and small-cap stocks, as well as bond funds. Since then, it has done quite well indeed.
Do you think index funds are the only way to invest? T. Rowe begs to differ. Indeed, 79% of its U.S. equity funds beat their benchmark over the past 10 years.
But which are the best T. Rowe Price mutual funds on offer? Here are my thoughts.
