State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Reduces Holdings in Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D trimmed its stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM) by 32.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 44,182 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 21,152 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D owned 0.05% of Artisan Partners Asset Management worth $1,823,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in Artisan Partners Asset Management during the 4th quarter valued at about $925,000. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd purchased a new position in Artisan Partners Asset Management during the 1st quarter valued at about $734,000. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its position in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 400,134 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $18,314,000 after acquiring an additional 42,522 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its holdings in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 25.2% in the fourth quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,581,267 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $69,860,000 after buying an additional 318,355 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FCF Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Artisan Partners Asset Management in the first quarter worth about $988,000. 86.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on APAM. StockNews.com cut shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in a report on Monday, July 29th.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE APAM opened at $42.88 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $41.24 and a 200-day moving average price of $42.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The stock has a market cap of $3.45 billion, a PE ratio of 13.07 and a beta of 1.79. Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.12 and a 1 year high of $46.75.

Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.05). Artisan Partners Asset Management had a return on equity of 71.76% and a net margin of 22.75%. The company had revenue of $270.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $274.70 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.71 EPS. Artisan Partners Asset Management’s revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. will post 3.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. This is a positive change from Artisan Partners Asset Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. Artisan Partners Asset Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 86.59%.

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.