Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM) Short Interest Update

Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,060,000 shares, a decline of 20.8% from the February 28th total of 2,600,000 shares. Currently, 2.9% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 518,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.0 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on APAM shares. StockNews.com upgraded Artisan Partners Asset Management from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $44.38.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Stock Down 2.9 %

Shares of NYSE:APAM opened at $39.11 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $42.58 and its 200 day moving average is $43.97. Artisan Partners Asset Management has a 12-month low of $37.89 and a 12-month high of $49.54. The stock has a market cap of $3.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.74 and a beta of 1.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The asset manager reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.08. Artisan Partners Asset Management had a return on equity of 74.02% and a net margin of 23.36%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Artisan Partners Asset Management will post 3.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.11%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Artisan Partners Asset Management’s payout ratio is 92.31%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Artisan Partners Asset Management

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,097,132 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $348,582,000 after acquiring an additional 78,979 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,772,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $119,362,000 after purchasing an additional 128,717 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,742,935 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $118,824,000 after purchasing an additional 33,723 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,813,598 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $78,092,000 after purchasing an additional 38,284 shares during the period. Finally, Channing Capital Management LLC grew its position in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 1,770,526 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $76,221,000 after buying an additional 224,455 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.45% of the company’s stock.

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.