Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM) Short Interest Down 11.0% in September

Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 2,600,000 shares, a drop of 11.0% from the September 15th total of 2,920,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 441,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.9 days.

Institutional Trading of Artisan Partners Asset Management

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of APAM. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in the 4th quarter worth about $925,000. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in the 1st quarter worth about $734,000. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 11.9% in the 1st quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 400,134 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $18,314,000 after buying an additional 42,522 shares during the last quarter. FCF Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in the 1st quarter worth about $988,000. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its holdings in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 42.5% during the 1st quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,331,970 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $60,965,000 after purchasing an additional 397,424 shares during the last quarter. 86.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on APAM shares. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $40.00 to $39.50 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in a research report on Monday, July 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $42.83.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Price Performance

Shares of APAM traded up $0.61 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $46.12. 74,315 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 444,263. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Artisan Partners Asset Management has a 52-week low of $32.12 and a 52-week high of $46.75. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $41.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.27. The company has a market cap of $3.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.88 and a beta of 1.79.

Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $270.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $274.70 million. Artisan Partners Asset Management had a net margin of 22.75% and a return on equity of 71.76%. The business’s revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.71 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Artisan Partners Asset Management will post 3.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a $0.71 dividend. This is an increase from Artisan Partners Asset Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. Artisan Partners Asset Management’s payout ratio is currently 86.59%.

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.