UPDATE 1-T.Rowe profit steady; more stock buybacks possible

(Adds details on earnings, CEO quotes,)

BOSTON, July 25 (Reuters) - T. Rowe Price Group Inc (TROW.O) reported steady quarterly profit on Friday, meeting Wall Street expectations, as investors put more money into its funds but the company grappled with declining markets.

The Baltimore-based company, one of the 10 biggest publicly traded U.S. fund managers, said net income was unchanged from a year earlier at $162 million. Earnings per share rose to 60 cents from 58 cents due to a decline in shares outstanding.

Since January, T. Rowe Price has spent $425 million to buy back 8.2 million shares and plans to keep buying if the price is right, James Kennedy, the company's chief executive, told Reuters in an interview. "It is an efficient way to give back money to shareholders," he said.

Last year, the company, which has been managing money in Baltimore since 1937, spent $320 million to repurchase shares.

During the second quarter, investors added $8.1 billion in new money to T. Rowe Price products, topping some analysts' expectations and helping assets under management swell to $387.7 billion.

Second-quarter revenue climbed 6 percent to $586.5 million as the company earned more in investment advisory and administrative fees.

Still, T. Rowe Price, like other asset managers, has felt the sting of tumbling stock prices, which often weigh on earnings.

Wachovia analyst Douglas Sipkin wrote that T. Rowe Price's inflows "remains one of the top equity flows in the industry," and said organic growth "will be at or near the best in the industry once again." (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; editing by John Wallace)