Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM) Short Interest Update

Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,840,000 shares, a decrease of 6.9% from the August 15th total of 3,050,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 470,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.0 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its position in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 42.5% during the first quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,331,970 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $60,965,000 after buying an additional 397,424 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 25.2% during the 4th quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,581,267 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $69,860,000 after acquiring an additional 318,355 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $10,685,000. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $9,907,000. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 2.5% in the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 6,626,937 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $273,494,000 after purchasing an additional 160,297 shares during the period. 86.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in a research report on Monday, July 29th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on 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, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Stock Performance

NYSE APAM opened at $42.16 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $41.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.45. Artisan Partners Asset Management has a 12-month low of $32.12 and a 12-month high of $46.75. The firm has a market cap of $3.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.85 and a beta of 1.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.05). Artisan Partners Asset Management had a net margin of 22.75% and a return on equity of 71.76%. The firm had revenue of $270.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $274.70 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. Artisan Partners Asset Management’s revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Artisan Partners Asset Management will post 3.36 EPS for the current year.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a $0.71 dividend. This is a positive change from Artisan Partners Asset Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.74%. Artisan Partners Asset Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 86.59%.

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.