Verition Fund Management LLC Buys Shares of 8,024 Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM)

Verition Fund Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM – Get Rating) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 8,024 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 80.2% during the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 6,804,537 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $242,037,000 after acquiring an additional 3,028,362 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,206,714 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $244,235,000 after buying an additional 166,010 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,092,524 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $200,390,000 after buying an additional 57,485 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,824,623 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $49,137,000 after buying an additional 55,358 shares during the period. Finally, Channing Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 1,488,689 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $40,090,000 after buying an additional 45,983 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.53% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

APAM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $33.00 to $27.00 in a research note on Monday, March 6th. Credit Suisse Group increased their price objective on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $29.50 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Artisan Partners Asset Management presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.08.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Trading Down 4.1 %

APAM opened at $30.15 on Friday. Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.67 and a 1-year high of $40.68. The company has a current ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The company has a market cap of $2.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.29 and a beta of 1.83. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $34.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $32.37.

Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 1st. The asset manager reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.03. Artisan Partners Asset Management had a net margin of 20.82% and a return on equity of 96.97%. The firm had revenue of $226.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $222.60 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.29 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 28.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. will post 2.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 14th were paid a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 11.94%. This is a boost from Artisan Partners Asset Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 13th. Artisan Partners Asset Management’s payout ratio is presently 75.09%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Samuel Bentson Sellers sold 9,790 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.11, for a total transaction of $353,516.90. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,568 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $562,160.48. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 19.52% of the company’s stock.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Profile

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Artisan Partners Asset Management, Inc operates as an investment management company, which provides investment strategies to clients globally. It offers investment management services to institutions and through intermediaries that operate with institutional-like decision-making processes and have longer-term investment horizons, by means of separate accounts and mutual funds.