v3.25.0.1
Dec. 31, 2024
T. Rowe Price Institutional Small-Cap Stock Fund
Institutional Small-Cap Stock Fund
Investment Objective(s)

The fund seeks to provide long-term capital growth by investing primarily in stocks of small companies.

Fees and Expenses

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the fund. You may also incur brokerage commissions and other charges when buying or selling shares of the fund, which are not reflected in the table or example below.

Annual fund operating expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Annual Fund Operating Expenses
T. Rowe Price Institutional Small-Cap Stock Fund
Institutional Small-Cap Stock Fund
Management fees 0.65%
Other expenses 0.01%
Total annual fund operating expenses 0.66%
Example
This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods, that your investment has a 5% return each year, and that the fund’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
Expense Example
T. Rowe Price Institutional Small-Cap Stock Fund
Institutional Small-Cap Stock Fund
USD ($)
1 Year $ 67
3 Years 211
5 Years 368
10 Years $ 822
Portfolio Turnover

Portfolio Turnover The fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when the fund’s shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 59.9% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

The fund normally invests at least 80% of its net assets (plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in stocks of small companies. Any derivatives that provide exposure to the investment focus suggested by the fund’s name, or to one or more market risk factors associated with the

investment focus suggested by the fund’s name, are counted (as applicable) toward compliance with the fund’s 80% investment policy.

The fund defines a small-cap company as a company whose market capitalization falls below the maximum market capitalization in the Russell 2000 Index, MSCI USA Small Cap Index or MSCI World Small Cap Index (after systematically removing any companies that cannot reasonably be considered a small-cap company from the high end of the range of each index). The market capitalizations of the companies in the indexes change over time and the indexes are periodically reconstituted to ensure that they continue to accurately reflect the small-cap equity market. As of December 31, 2024, the largest market capitalization represented across these indexes (after removing any outlier companies) was $29 billion.

When choosing stocks, the adviser generally looks for one or more of the following characteristics:

· capable management;

· attractive business niches;

· pricing flexibility;

· sound financial and accounting practices;

· a potential or demonstrated ability to grow revenues, earnings, and cash flow consistently; and

· the potential for a catalyst (such as increased investor attention, asset sales, strong business prospects, or a change in management) to cause the stock’s price to rise.

Holdings will be widely diversified by industry and issuer, and stock selection may reflect either a growth or value investment approach. For example, the adviser may look for a company whose price/earnings ratio is attractive relative to the underlying earnings growth rate. A value stock would be one where the stock price appears undervalued in relation to earnings, projected cash flow, or asset value per share.

At times, the fund may have a significant portion of its assets invested in the same economic sector.

While most assets are typically invested in U.S. common stocks, the fund may invest in foreign stocks in keeping with its objective(s).

The fund’s investments may include holdings in privately held companies and companies that only recently began to trade publicly.

Principal Risks
Risk Table - T. Rowe Price Institutional Small-Cap Stock Fund
Risk [Text Block]
Risk Lose Money [Member] The fund’s share price fluctuates, which means you could lose money by investing in the fund.
Small-cap stocks

Small-cap stocks: Investments in securities issued by small-cap companies are likely to be more volatile than investments in securities issued by larger companies. Small-cap companies often have less experienced management, narrower product lines, more limited financial resources, and less publicly available information than larger companies. In addition, small-cap

companies are typically more sensitive to changes in overall economic conditions and their securities may be difficult to trade.

Sector exposure

Sector exposure: Issuers in the same economic sector may be similarly affected by economic or market events, making the fund more vulnerable to unfavorable developments in that economic sector than funds that invest more broadly.

Stock investing

Stock investing: Stocks generally fluctuate in value more than bonds and may decline significantly over short time periods. There is a chance that stock prices overall will decline because stock markets tend to move in cycles, with periods of rising and falling prices. The value of stocks held by the fund may decline due to general weakness or volatility in the stock markets in which the fund invests or because of factors that affect a particular company or industry.

Market conditions

Market conditions: The value of the fund’s investments may decrease, sometimes rapidly or unexpectedly, due to factors affecting an issuer held by the fund, particular industries, or the overall securities markets. A variety of factors can increase the volatility of the fund’s holdings and markets generally, including economic, political, or regulatory developments, recessions, inflation, rapid interest rate changes, war, military conflict, acts of terrorism, natural disasters, and outbreaks of infectious illnesses or other widespread public health issues (such as the coronavirus pandemic) and related governmental and public responses (including sanctions). Certain events may cause instability across global markets, including reduced liquidity and disruptions in trading markets, while some events may affect certain geographic regions, countries, sectors, and industries more significantly than others. Government intervention in markets may impact interest rates, market volatility, and security pricing. These adverse developments may cause broad declines in market value due to short-term market movements or for significantly longer periods during more prolonged market downturns.

Foreign investing

Foreign investing: Non-U.S. securities tend to be more volatile and have lower overall liquidity and trading volume than investments in U.S. securities and may lose value because of adverse local, political, social, or economic developments overseas, or due to changes in the exchange rates between foreign currencies and the U.S. dollar. Further, securities of non-U.S. issuers are subject to trading markets with potential governmental interference, varying regulatory, auditing, and accounting standards, and settlement and clearance practices that differ from those of U.S. issuers. Investment in non-U.S. securities also carries currency risk. Any attempts to hedge currency risk could be unsuccessful. Such investments may have higher transaction costs compared with U.S. markets. The fund’s overall foreign investing risk is increased to the extent it has exposure to emerging markets.

Private placements and IPOs

Private placements and IPOs: Investments in the stocks of privately held companies and in companies that only recently began to publicly trade, such as initial public offerings or IPOs, involve greater risks than investments in stocks of companies that have traded publicly on an exchange for extended time periods. There is significantly less information available about these companies’ business models, quality of management, earnings growth potential, and other criteria that are normally considered when evaluating the investment prospects of a company. Private placements and other restricted securities held by the fund are typically considered to be illiquid and tend to be difficult to value since there are no market prices and less overall financial

information available. The adviser evaluates a variety of factors when assigning a value to these holdings, but the determination involves some degree of subjectivity and the value assigned for the fund may differ from the value assigned by other mutual funds holding the same security.

Liquidity

Liquidity: A particular investment or an entire market segment may become less liquid or even illiquid, sometimes abruptly, which could limit the fund’s ability to purchase or sell holdings in a timely manner at a desired price. An inability to sell a portfolio holding can adversely affect the fund’s overall value or prevent the fund from being able to take advantage of other investment opportunities. Liquidity risk may be magnified during periods of substantial market volatility and unexpected episodes of illiquidity may limit the fund’s ability to pay redemption proceeds without selling holdings at an unfavorable time or at a suitable price. Large redemptions may also have a negative impact on the fund’s overall liquidity.

Active management

Active management: The fund’s overall investment program and holdings selected by the fund’s investment adviser may underperform the broad markets, relevant indices, or other funds with similar objectives and investment strategies.

Cybersecurity breaches

Cybersecurity breaches: The fund could be harmed by intentional cyberattacks and other cybersecurity breaches, including unauthorized access to the fund’s assets, confidential information, or other proprietary information. In addition, a cybersecurity breach could cause one of the fund’s service providers or financial intermediaries to suffer unauthorized data access, data corruption, or loss of operational functionality.

Performance

The following performance information provides some indication of the risks of investing in the fund. The fund’s performance information represents only past performance (before and after taxes) and is not necessarily an indication of future results.

The following bar chart illustrates how much returns can differ from year to year by showing calendar year returns and the best and worst calendar quarter returns during those years for the fund.

Calendar Year Returns
Bar Chart
         
  

Quarter Ended

Total

Return

  

Quarter Ended

Total

Return

 
 

Best Quarter

6/30/20

25.41%

 

Worst Quarter

3/31/20

-26.24%

 
Average Annual Total Returns Periods ended December 31, 2024

The following table shows the average annual total returns for the fund. The fund’s performance information included in the table is compared with a regulatory required index that represents an overall securities market (Regulatory Benchmark). In addition, the table may also include one or more indexes that more closely aligns to the fund’s investment strategy (Strategy Benchmark(s)).

In addition, the table shows hypothetical after-tax returns to demonstrate how taxes paid by a shareholder may influence returns. After-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor’s tax situation and may differ from those shown. After-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as a 401(k) account or an IRA.

Average Annual Total Returns - T. Rowe Price Institutional Small-Cap Stock Fund
Label
1 Year
5 Years
10 Years
Inception Date
Institutional Small-Cap Stock Fund   11.75% 8.02% 9.78% Mar. 31, 2000
Institutional Small-Cap Stock Fund | After Taxes on Distributions   7.39% 5.98% 7.87%  
Institutional Small-Cap Stock Fund | After Taxes on Distributions and Sales   10.08% 6.19% 7.61%  
Russell 3000® Index [1] Russell 3000® Index        
Russell 3000® Index Russell 3000® Index        
Russell 3000® Index   23.81% 13.86% 12.55%  
Russell 2000® Index Russell 2000® Index        
Russell 2000® Index   11.54% 7.40% 7.82%  
Lipper Small-Cap Core Funds Index Lipper Small-Cap Core Funds Index        
Lipper Small-Cap Core Funds Index   10.56% 8.64% 8.41%  
Lipper Small-Cap Growth Funds Index Lipper Small-Cap Growth Funds Index        
Lipper Small-Cap Growth Funds Index   13.62% 8.58% 9.72%  
[1] Due to new SEC Rules on shareholder reporting, the fund adopted a new broad-based securities market index, referred to as the Regulatory Benchmark.
Updated performance information is available through troweprice.com.