Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) Cut to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Monday morning.

Separately, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.38.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Price Performance

Shares of APAM stock opened at $38.67 on Monday. Artisan Partners Asset Management has a 52-week low of $37.89 and a 52-week high of $49.54. The stock has a market cap of $3.10 billion, a PE ratio of 10.62 and a beta of 1.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.56. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $43.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $44.02.

Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The asset manager reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.08. Artisan Partners Asset Management had a net margin of 23.36% and a return on equity of 74.02%. As a group, analysts forecast that Artisan Partners Asset Management will post 3.6 EPS for the current year.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.17%. Artisan Partners Asset Management’s payout ratio is 92.31%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Artisan Partners Asset Management

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 6.9% during the third quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,533,396 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $66,426,000 after acquiring an additional 99,005 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 210.0% during the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 59,735 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,588,000 after acquiring an additional 40,468 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 4.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,775,314 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $76,920,000 after acquiring an additional 82,868 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 341,336 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $14,695,000 after acquiring an additional 10,802 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 60.8% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 42,759 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,841,000 after acquiring an additional 16,166 shares during the period. 86.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Company Profile

Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc is publicly owned investment manager. It provides its services to pension and profit sharing plans, trusts, endowments, foundations, charitable organizations, government entities, private funds and non-U.S. funds, as well as mutual funds, non-U.S. funds and collective trusts.