Baird Financial Group Inc. Acquires 6,000 Shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. $APAM

Key Points

• Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 67.6%, acquiring an additional 6,000 shares, bringing its total holdings to 14,870 shares valued at approximately $581,000.
• Wall Street analysts have varying opinions on Artisan Partners, with an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $41.90, reflecting mixed forecasts for the stock's performance.
• Artisan Partners recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.73 per share, yielding 6.3%, an increase from the previous dividend of $0.68, indicating strong financial health.

Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM - Free Report) by 67.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,870 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 6,000 shares during the quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Artisan Partners Asset Management were worth $581,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of APAM. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in the 1st quarter worth approximately $17,671,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its position in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 24.0% in the 1st quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,970,796 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $77,057,000 after acquiring an additional 381,210 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 67,047.1% in the 1st quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 253,816 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $9,924,000 after acquiring an additional 253,438 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 98.2% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 439,057 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $18,901,000 after acquiring an additional 217,552 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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 during the period. Institutional investors own 86.45% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on APAM. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Artisan Partners Asset Management from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Cowen reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Artisan Partners Asset Management from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on Artisan Partners Asset Management from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Artisan Partners Asset Management from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Artisan Partners Asset Management currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $41.90.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Trading Down 0.0%

APAM stock opened at $46.47 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $46.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.36. Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.75 and a fifty-two week high of $49.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.36 and a beta of 1.71. 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 (NYSE:APAM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The asset manager reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.01. Artisan Partners Asset Management had a return on equity of 71.72% and a net margin of 23.87%.The firm had revenue of $282.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $269.00 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.82 EPS. The business's revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. 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 was paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $0.73 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.3%. This is a positive change from Artisan Partners Asset Management's previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. Artisan Partners Asset Management's payout ratio is 77.66%.

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.

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