The president and chief executive of T. Rowe Price Group Inc., James A.C. Kennedy, saw his total compensation fall 17 percent to $4.7 million last year, according to an Associated Press analysis of the investment management company's proxy statement.

Kennedy's 2009 compensation fell primarily because of a 29 percent reduction in the market value of stock option awards compared with 2008, and a 14 percent cut in his annual cash incentive.

Kennedy's reduction came as Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price tried to recover from a bear market in 2008 and early 2009 that sharply reduced the value of stocks in the company's mutual funds, and eroded money management fees. A market recovery that began last March has helped T. Rowe Price and rival money managers make up some, but not all, of the lost ground.

T. Rowe Price's total assets under management finished 2009 at $391.3 billion, up more than 40 percent from the end of 2008. The company's shares have more than doubled over the past 12 months, from a low of $20.09 last March to around $53 now.

Kennedy's base pay stayed flat at $350,000 last year, T. Rowe Price said in a filing March 4 with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

His pay under an incentive program fell to $3.3 million from $3.85 million a year earlier. The company wrote in the proxy that incentive awards to its senior executives were much less than the maximum allowed by the plan. It said that it reduced the incentive payments for its top three executives by 47 percent from 2007 through 2009, greater than the 35 percent reduction in the company's net income over that period.

The company awarded Kennedy $1.02 million in stock option awards last year, down from nearly $1.45 million worth in 2008.

Kennedy also received $56,342 in other compensation, including a $31,944 contribution to a retirement program and a $20,000 matching charitable contribution.

The Associated Press calculations of total pay include executives' salary, bonus, incentives, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation (which T. Rowe Price doesn't pay) and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year. The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the SEC.

T. Rowe Price's revenue, profit and earnings per share rebounded last year, but they remain lower than 2008 and well below the highs of 2007. The company reined in some costs, particularly advertising and promotion, which dropped 23 percent from the prior year to $23.8 million.

T. Rowe Price said its mutual funds continued to perform well last year compared with rivals, with 89 percent outperforming their category averages for the past five years, according to averages compiled by fund tracker Lipper. Over the past three years, 80 percent of T. Rowe Price's funds were beating the Lipper average for their categories.