Prudential Financial Inc. Lowers Holdings in Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM)

Prudential Financial Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM) by 3.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 74,807 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 2,903 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. owned 0.09% of Artisan Partners Asset Management worth $3,220,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of APAM. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,097,132 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $348,582,000 after purchasing an additional 78,979 shares during the period. Napatree Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Napatree Capital LLC now owns 16,542 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $712,000 after buying an additional 1,767 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new position in Artisan Partners Asset Management in the fourth quarter valued at $852,000. Sei Investments Co. grew its position in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 101,826 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,384,000 after acquiring an additional 5,065 shares during the period. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 164,039 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,062,000 after acquiring an additional 10,120 shares during the last quarter. 86.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

APAM has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on 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. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.38.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:APAM opened at $40.26 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.92. The company has a market cap of $3.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.06 and a beta of 1.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.56. Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. has a one year low of $37.89 and a one year high of $49.54.

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

Artisan Partners Asset Management Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.97%. Artisan Partners Asset Management’s dividend payout ratio is presently 92.31%.

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.