Virtu Financial LLC Buys New Stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. $APAM

Key Points

• Virtu Financial LLC has acquired 6,604 shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management, valued at approximately $258,000, marking a significant new position in the company.
• Artisan Partners Asset Management announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.73 per share, representing a yield of 6.3%, effective on August 29th.
• The company's stock has seen recent upgrades from analysts, with a current average rating of "Hold" and a price target of $39.30.

Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 6,604 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $258,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 208.6% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 574 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 388 shares during the period. Continuum Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $63,000. CWM LLC raised its position in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 77.0% during the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,126 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $83,000 after buying an additional 925 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc. raised its position in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 118,700.0% during the 1st quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 2,376 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $92,000 after buying an additional 2,374 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its position in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 36.2% during the 1st quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,996 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $156,000 after buying an additional 1,062 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.45% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on APAM. Cowen reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. TD Securities lifted their price target on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Artisan Partners Asset Management currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $39.30.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Trading Down 0.6%

Artisan Partners Asset Management stock traded down $0.2530 during trading on Thursday, hitting $44.9270. The company had a trading volume of 388,441 shares, compared to its average volume of 549,254. Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.75 and a 1-year high of $49.54. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $45.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.13. The stock has a market cap of $3.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.95 and a beta of 1.69.

Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The asset manager reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $282.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $269.00 million. Artisan Partners Asset Management had a net margin of 23.87% and a return on equity of 71.72%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.82 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. will post 3.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be paid a $0.73 dividend. This represents a $2.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.5%. This is a positive change from Artisan Partners Asset Management's previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 15th. Artisan Partners Asset Management's payout ratio is presently 77.66%.

Insider Activity at Artisan Partners Asset Management

In other Artisan Partners Asset Management news, CFO Charles J. Daley, Jr. sold 15,448 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.45, for a total value of $624,871.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 91,363 shares in the company, valued at $3,695,633.35. The trade was a 14.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 12.53% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Artisan Partners Asset Management 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.