T. Rowe Price Closes Some Funds

The firm enacted the closures to maintain the integrity of the funds’ investment strategies and to protect the interests of existing shareholders, according to a statement.

While the funds are closed to new investors, T. Rowe Price will continue to accept additional investments from existing shareholders and direct rollovers from qualified retirement plans into new individual retirement accounts (IRAs) offered by the firm.

The New Horizons Fund was first closed near a market peak in October 1967 and has been reopened and closed several times since then—last reopening in May 2002.

The Small-Cap Stock Fund was first closed to new investors in March 2004. The fund last reopened to new investors in April 2009. 

Bill Stromberg, head of equity for T. Rowe Price, says the move to close the funds to new investors becomes necessary when the size or pace of cash flows impairs the portfolio manager’s ability to invest effectively on behalf of existing shareholders.