Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Sells 11,926 Shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lowered its position in Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM) by 56.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 9,319 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 11,926 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Artisan Partners Asset Management were worth $385,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management during the 4th quarter valued at $925,000. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd bought a new stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management during the first quarter valued at about $734,000. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. increased its position in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 11.9% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 25.2% in the fourth quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,581,267 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $69,860,000 after buying an additional 318,355 shares during the period. Finally, FCF Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management during the 1st quarter valued at about $988,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.45% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on APAM shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in a research note on Monday, July 29th.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Price Performance

APAM opened at $42.69 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.02 and a beta of 1.79. 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 Inc. has a 12-month low of $32.12 and a 12-month high of $46.75. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $41.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.40.

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

Artisan Partners Asset Management Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. 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 6.65%. Artisan Partners Asset Management’s payout ratio is currently 86.59%.

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.