Short Interest in Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM) Drops By 20.8%

Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,060,000 shares, a drop of 20.8% from the February 28th total of 2,600,000 shares. Approximately 2.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 518,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.0 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Artisan Partners Asset Management

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 82.7% during the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 581 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 263 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 208.6% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 574 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 388 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 110.7% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 628 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 166.8% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,027 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 642 shares during the period. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $57,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.45% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

APAM has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Artisan Partners Asset Management from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $44.38.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Price Performance

NYSE APAM traded up $0.65 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $40.26. 356,368 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 444,110. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $43.95. Artisan Partners Asset Management has a 1 year low of $37.89 and a 1 year high of $49.54. The company has a market cap of $3.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.06 and a beta of 1.83.

Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The asset manager reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.08. Artisan Partners Asset Management had a return on equity of 74.02% and a net margin of 23.36%. On average, analysts predict that Artisan Partners Asset Management will post 3.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.97%. Artisan Partners Asset Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 92.31%.

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.