Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) Rating Increased to Hold at Zacks Research

Zacks Research upgraded shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Monday morning,Zacks reports.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $37.00 price objective on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in a research note on Friday, September 11th. Finally, Evercore set a $36.00 target price on Artisan Partners Asset Management in a report on Friday, July 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Artisan Partners Asset Management presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.00.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of APAM opened at $36.67 on Monday. Artisan Partners Asset Management has a 52 week low of $33.96 and a 52 week high of $46.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.90 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.12.

Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The asset manager reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $307.91 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $301.32 million. Artisan Partners Asset Management had a return on equity of 73.11% and a net margin of 24.08%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.83 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Artisan Partners Asset Management will post 3.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 31st. Investors of record on Monday, August 17th were given a dividend of $0.80 per share. This is an increase from Artisan Partners Asset Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 17th. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.7%. Artisan Partners Asset Management’s dividend payout ratio is 77.67%.

Insider Transactions at Artisan Partners Asset Management

In other Artisan Partners Asset Management news, EVP Gregory Ramirez sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.59, for a total value of $298,130.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 109,194 shares in the company, valued at $4,650,572.46. The trade was a 6.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 11.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Artisan Partners Asset Management

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Engineers Gate Manager LP lifted its position in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 73.2% during the second quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 14,200 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $490,000 after purchasing an additional 6,000 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its position in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 39.8% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 66,967 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,312,000 after buying an additional 19,069 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 19.4% in the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 3,691 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $127,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the period. Nykredit A S acquired a new stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in the 2nd quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management during the second quarter worth $996,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.45% of the company’s stock.

About Artisan Partners Asset Management

Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc is a global investment management company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Through its subsidiaries and investment teams, the company provides actively managed investment strategies to institutional investors, financial intermediaries and private clients.

The firm offers a range of equity, fixed-income and alternative investment strategies, including U.S. and international equities, emerging-market investments, credit and other specialized portfolios.