New York State Common Retirement Fund Grows Stock Position in Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM)

New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its holdings in Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM) by 16.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 430,619 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 60,352 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Artisan Partners Asset Management were worth $18,538,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Aviance Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Aviance Capital Partners LLC now owns 31,415 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,361,000 after buying an additional 286 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 31.0% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,478 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $64,000 after buying an additional 350 shares during the period. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV raised its holdings in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 6,461 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $280,000 after buying an additional 406 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its position in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 22.9% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,218 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $96,000 after buying an additional 413 shares during the period. Finally, Trajan Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. Trajan Wealth LLC now owns 5,608 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $243,000 after acquiring an additional 611 shares during the last quarter. 86.45% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Stock Down 3.6 %

APAM stock opened at $42.33 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.63 and a beta of 1.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.56. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $43.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.84. Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.89 and a fifty-two week high of $49.54.

Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The asset manager reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, 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 will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.72%. Artisan Partners Asset Management’s payout ratio is 92.31%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on APAM shares. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Artisan Partners Asset Management from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com cut Artisan Partners Asset Management from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Artisan Partners Asset Management from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Artisan Partners Asset Management currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $44.38.

About Artisan Partners Asset Management

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.