Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. $APAM Holdings Lowered by Meritage Portfolio Management

Meritage Portfolio Management trimmed its stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM) by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 107,720 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 2,859 shares during the period. Meritage Portfolio Management owned about 0.13% of Artisan Partners Asset Management worth $4,775,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 6.1% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,940,562 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $114,976,000 after acquiring an additional 167,930 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 25.0% in the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 2,464,096 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $109,233,000 after acquiring an additional 493,300 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,228,743 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $48,044,000 after acquiring an additional 39,578 shares in the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP lifted its stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 1,066,936 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $41,717,000 after acquiring an additional 31,211 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 36.0% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 621,491 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $24,300,000 after acquiring an additional 164,612 shares in the last quarter. 86.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Stock Down 2.9%

Shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management stock opened at $42.34 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.26 and a beta of 1.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.97. Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. has a 52-week low of $32.75 and a 52-week high of $49.54. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $45.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.87.

Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The asset manager reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $282.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $269.00 million. Artisan Partners Asset Management had a return on equity of 71.72% and a net margin of 23.87%.The firm’s revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.82 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. will post 3.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a $0.73 dividend. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This is a positive change from Artisan Partners Asset Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. Artisan Partners Asset Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 77.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

APAM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Artisan Partners Asset Management from $45.00 to $43.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Artisan Partners Asset Management from $47.00 to $43.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 15th. Zacks Research downgraded Artisan Partners Asset Management from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on Artisan Partners Asset Management from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $44.00.

About Artisan Partners Asset Management

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.