T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. held bonuses flat for its top three executives last year, paying them $7.61 million, despite a record year for the company.
George A. Roche, chairman and president, and Vice Chairmen James S. Riepe and M. David Testa each received a bonus of $2.25 million in addition to salaries of $287,500.
For each of the three, total 1998 compensation was $2.54 million, up $12,500 from what they were paid in 1997, according to a proxy statement filed yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"That is an extremely unselfish thing to do," said Mark L. Constant, an analyst at Merrill Lynch Global Securities Research and Economics in San Francisco. "It wasn't the year they would have ideally liked, but all in all, it was a good solid year."
Constant said the packages are not "extraordinary on the downside, or on the upside."
Roche and Testa were granted 50,000 options for Price stock, and Riepe received 52,977 options.
The compensation package for James A. C. Kennedy, managing director, was up 13.6 percent from the prior year. He was paid a $1.6 million bonus in addition to a salary of $275,000. William T. Reynolds, managing director, received a bonus of $1.4 million and salary of $275,000, up 11.7 percent.
The increases in compensation were modest compared with the 42.4 percent increases the top three executives received in total 1997 compensation.
Steven Norwitz, a spokesman for the Baltimore-based mutual fund company, said increases in compensation are made in steps.
"There are periods where it remains pretty stable," he said. "This was just a year when they determined they would have very modest increases in salary. I think the feeling was that the top three would hold compensation in line."
Price's directors and officers hold 14.22 percent of the company. Roche, 57, owns 3.2 million shares, or 2.54 percent of the company; Riepe, 55, has 2.9 million shares, or 2.29 percent; and Testa, 54, has 2.2 million shares, or 1.79 percent, according to the report.
Price is the nation's sixth-largest publicly held mutual fund company, and it has performed spectacularly as the stock market has climbed.
In the past five years, assets that it manages have more than doubled -- from $57.8 billion in 1994 to $147.8 billion last year. Revenue has more than doubled over the same period, from $382 million in 1994 to $886 million last year. And net income has nearly tripled -- from $61 million in 1994 to $174 million in 1998.
Likewise, Price's stock is up nearly fivefold, from $6.9375 per share in 1994 to $33.5625, where it closed yesterday, down $1.5625.
Net income in 1997 was $144.4 million on revenue of $754.96 million.
Pub Date: 3/09/99