Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) Stock Gets Downgrade from Zacks Research

Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) was downgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Zacks reports.

Several other research firms also recently commented on APAM. Evercore set a $34.00 price objective on Artisan Partners Asset Management in a report on Friday, October 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on Artisan Partners Asset Management from $45.00 to $43.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 9th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on Artisan Partners Asset Management from $37.00 to $33.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in a research report on Tuesday, September 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Artisan Partners Asset Management from $35.00 to $31.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $35.25.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of APAM opened at $31.65 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.68 and a beta of 1.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90. Artisan Partners Asset Management has a 1-year low of $30.86 and a 1-year high of $46.53. The company has a 50-day moving average of $38.86 and a 200 day moving average of $37.79.

Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The asset manager reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.03. Artisan Partners Asset Management had a net margin of 24.08% and a return on equity of 73.11%. The business had revenue of $307.91 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $301.32 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.83 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Artisan Partners Asset Management will post 3.86 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Artisan Partners Asset Management

In related news, EVP Gregory Ramirez sold 7,000 shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.59, for a total transaction of $298,130.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 109,194 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,650,572.46. This trade represents a 6.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 11.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Artisan Partners Asset Management

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 12.6% during the 1st quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 2,587,946 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $94,175,000 after acquiring an additional 289,105 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 8.4% in the second quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,704,243 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $58,848,000 after acquiring an additional 132,708 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 1.9% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,670,380 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $60,782,000 after acquiring an additional 30,863 shares in the last quarter. Punch & Associates Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 25.9% in the first quarter. Punch & Associates Investment Management Inc. now owns 551,336 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $20,063,000 after purchasing an additional 113,491 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 11.0% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 343,520 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $12,501,000 after purchasing an additional 33,921 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.45% of the company’s stock.

About Artisan Partners Asset Management

Artisan Partners Asset Management, Inc (NYSE: APAM) is a global investment management firm that provides active investment strategies to institutional investors, financial intermediaries and private clients. The company operates through affiliated investment teams with distinct approaches, investment philosophies and areas of expertise.

Artisan Partners offers a range of equity, fixed-income and alternative investment strategies. Its products and services include separately managed accounts, mutual funds, collective investment trusts and other investment vehicles designed for institutions, wealth managers and individual investors.