With Profit Down 68%, T. Rowe Reduces Staff by 5.5%

T. Rowe Price’s first-quarter earnings fell 68% to $48.2 million, or 19 cents a share, from $151.5 million, or 55 cents a share, in the first quarter of 2008. Revenue fell 31% to $384.5 million, down from $559.1 million.

As a direct result of this poor performance, T. Rowe said that it has eliminated 288 positions, or 5.5% of its staff. Most of the positions were in the call center and the back office. This is the first layoff wave T. Rowe price has undertaken since the beginning of the financial crisis, though it eliminated 3.1% other positions since the beginning of the year through attrition and retirements.

Noting that the firm experienced $2.4 billion in outflows in the fourth quarter, but reaped $4.5 billion inflows in the first quarter, primarily from institutional investors, T. Rowe Price CEO James Kennedy said there were signs of stabilization around the world—but “we’re not expecting a recovery anytime soon.”

T. Rowe Price has been able to avoid layoffs because it has been stringently cutting costs since the end of 2007 and is shooting for total expense savings of $120 million this year.